Aug. 27. Using John Hopkins University’s data, Cornelius Today compiled a chart of North Carolina’s new confirmed COVID-19 cases from July 27 through Aug. 26. The state’s median number of daily new cases post July 27 is 1,398, but the state’s median over the past seven days is higher at 1,473.

RIMER

Meanwhile, Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said NC colleges should hold students accountable for activities that promote the spread of the coronavirus.

Universities are reporting hundreds of infected students daily and Cohen has connected increased viral spread to students’ return to university campuses. Constituents of an institution of higher learning include not just students, but faculty, staff, townspeople and parents.

East Carolina and UNC Charlotte have joined UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State in moving to online-only instruction to counter the spread of the novel coronavirus. This means the state’s four largest schools, which in 2019 enrolled 52% of the students in the entire UNC system, have already bailed out of the planned reopening scheme before it really got underway.

Chapel Hill suffering

Chapel Hill is suffering from the recessionary impact of COVID-19, said Barbara K. Rimer, Dean of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health since 2005.

“It is one thing to talk about binary decisions—open or close. But we should not talk about those without also thinking about the consequences for real people, especially those who are the lowest paid and least secure,” she said.

“When they lose their jobs because of budget cuts, the consequences can spiral out of control. Finances and health cannot be separated. It is not one or the other. We need healthy economies and institutions and healthy people,” Rimer said.