Covid-19 outbreaks at US Universities
(Non-)Update
I will stop updating my list of covid-19 outbreaks at US Universities. I started this list because initial news reports focussed on single outbreaks, which left me wondering how widespread such outbreaks are. Well, that changed with the NYTimes article A New Front in America’s Pandemic: College Towns. It includes the following graphic:
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I conclude by referring to the SAGE (Scientific advisory group for the UK government) document Principles for Managing SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Associated with Higher Education (September 3), plus the list below of Universities that try frequent testing of all students below (discussed quite a bit in the SAGE document); I will attempt to make this list more comprehensive.
Some resources
- New: SAGE (Scientific advisory group for the UK government) document Principles for Managing SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Associated with Higher Education (September 3).
- Results of a survey among more than 100 public health experts, physicians, students, ... on ideas to prevent covid-19 outbreaks within Universities.
- Washington Post listed 100 public Universities to watch along with their fall start date. This list includes 14 Universities with a start date of Aug 17,
fivenine of which appear in the list above, and two with a start date of Aug 10, both of which appear. The NYTimes tracks covid-19 cases for many colleges, but only gives an all-time total, and often includes health care workers where they are University employees. - An incomplete list of covid-19 dashboards, with discussion. Another dashboard of dashboards.
- The coronavirus live blog at Inside Higher Ed posts information about many (but not all) outbreaks. A similar live blog at the Chronicle.
Mass(achusetts) testing
To the extent that I checked, all Universities mentioned above do teaching at reduced capacity, are trying to enforce physical distancing among students, requiring face coverings in University buildings, are testing all symptomatic students, and are doing some amount of contact tracing. Most have some dedicated quarantine housing. A few of them have done entry testing.
A few Universities are doing much more: systematic regular testing of all (on-campus) students and faculy at regular intervals. UIUC also appears above; below are a few more.
| University | Enrollment | Testing scheme (on-campus students) | More links |
|---|---|---|---|
| UIUC | 51000 | Twice weekly | #cases |
| Wesleyan U | 3200 | Twice weekly | #cases |
| Northeastern U | 37000 | Every 3 days | #cases |
| UMass Amherst | 30000 | Twice weekly | #cases |
| Boston U | 34000 | Up to twice weekly | #cases |
| UIC | 29000 | Weekly | #cases |
| MIT | 11500 | Up to twice weekly | #cases |
| Boston C | 14600 | Weekly | #cases |
| Harvard | 21000 | One to three times weekly | #cases |
| Yale | 13400 | Twice weekly | #cases |
| Colby College | 2000 | Two/three times weekly | #cases |
Who made this?
I did. Comments/corrections/additions welcome: arend.bayer@ed.ac.uk.