Granville Towers is one of the UNC residence hall communities experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19. On Friday, students learned the extent of the cases.
According to an email sent to Granville Towers residents, Carolina Housing said the two apartment towers have totaled 102 positive coronavirus cases as of Thursday. The Daily Tar Heel, which obtained the email Friday, said the message directs all residents to get tested for COVID-19 before leaving campus.
The email provides clarity to the cluster of coronavirus cases reported by the university to the campus community on August 14. UNC recently updated its protocols of reporting such information to the public, with clusters and their amounts by each location to be included in its Carolina Together COVID-19 Dashboard. The page typically features information shared daily Monday through Friday, often updated in the afternoons.
UNC announced Thursday it would be moving to a daily update of the dashboard after previously using a weekly model. The change comes after the university experienced more than 140 positive cases across its campus in the last two weeks, which caused it to transition back to an entirely-remote instruction model for undergraduate courses this fall semester.
According to the university’s dashboard, Granville Towers remained at 72 percent capacity as of Thursday. UNC announced Tuesday it is working to have most students cancel housing contracts in an effort to lower total campus residence hall occupancy to 20-25 percent full. Many are expected to be moved out by Tuesday, August 25, unless they fall under the criteria for exceptions to remain on the Chapel Hill campus.
In addition, an AlertCarolina message was sent out to students on Friday afternoon about a new cluster in Carmichael Residence Hall. The alert said individuals in the cluster have been identified and are isolating while receiving medical monitoring. A cluster is five or more positive COVID-19 cases, according to state health guidelines.
The university also announced Thursday it would be conducting mass testing of students still housed at the residence halls experiencing clusters, which includes Granville Towers, Ehringhaus and Hinton James. Testing will run from Friday through Sunday, in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the Orange County Health Department.
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