BOH Agenda 082620 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Orange County Health Director to UNC-Chapel Hill:Go online as default for Fall semester,restrict on-campus housing I The Progressive Pulse Orange County has attempted to control the spread of COVID-19 by adopting policies and mandates to encourage healthy and safe behaviors during this pandemic.We adopted a Countywide Mask Mandate and we close restaurants at IOpm daily to prevent the pop-up clublbar scene during late night operations as observed in early July. W h i I a these are valiant efforts, I fear it will not be enough to contain the full campus community upon return for the Fall Semester_ At this time, the Orange Gounty Health Department recommends that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consider the fallowing: ■ Restrict on campus housing to at-risk students with no access to equitable educational resources and those with true housing needs(i.e. International students, Carolina Covenant&marginalized students) ■ Consider virtual classes for the entire Fall Semester but at minimum begin the first 5 weeks of the semester with online instruction only with plans to reassess the situation at the 5 week mark Dry-Campus Housing The goal of limiting on-campus housing is to create a situation where students that need to return to campus are able to do so in a single occupancy room. Significantly lowering the census of students in the dorms will also allow for additional capacity for isolation&quarantine measures as needed. First Five Weeks-Online Instruction cnly As we continue to watch the data 1n Orange County, we want to ensure the community's ab11ity to respond to new cases. Earlier jn this Pandemic, our numbers were driven by the older age group, most of whom lived in one of the long-term care facilities in our community. Today we are seeing more cases with the younger age group and more community transmission and asymptomatic cases than originally seen. For this reason, if the first five weeks of instruction is virtual, we may be able to reduce further spread of the virus by eliminating in class instruction which would create mare opportunities for close contact and possible viral spread. Possibly related posts: 1. UNC-Chapel Hill considering timing of graduation, return for fall semester 2. UNC-Chapel Hill begins sharing ORoadmap for Fall 2020,0 details about return to campus 3. New UNC student survey gives insight into concerns, safety measures for return to campus 4. New COVID outbreaks at UNC system schools lead to growing concern about return to campuses 5. UNC-Chapel Hill launches COVID-19 dashboard, shows 173 infections as students return to dorms this week ORANGE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT ORANGE COUNTY •. • CHANCELLORUNC-CHAPEL HILL ❑ Previous Post Next Post ❑ http://putse.ncpolicywatch.org/...e-county-health-director-to-unc-chapel-hill-go-online-as-default-for-fall-semester-restrict-on-campus-housing/[8/18/20,8:36:31 AM]