ACROSS AMERICA — As coronavirus cases continue to spike dramatically on college campuses across the country, administrators are taking a zero-tolerance approach to partying students.
One day after it drew acclaim for its twice-weekly testing of students and staff with a saliva-based test it developed, the University of Illinois has ordered students to limit in-person activities for two weeks, the New York Times reports.
The move comes as more than 700 students have tested positive for the virus since Aug. 24.
At the University of Missouri, 330 students are facing disciplinary action and 10 Greek houses were placed under a temporary suspension this week for violations of emergency orders. Also, the University of South Carolina announced that 15 students had been placed under interim suspension and that six Greek houses had been charged with student conduct violations stemming from parties, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, the number of laid-off Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a still-elevated 881,000 last week, evidence that the viral pandemic keeps forcing many businesses to slash jobs.Subscribe
The latest figures, released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department, suggest that nearly six months after the eruption of the coronavirus, the economy is still struggling to sustain a recovery and rebuild a job market that was devastated by the recession.
In the previous week, more than 1 million had sought jobless aid.
In other news, an approved coronavirus vaccine could come this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week. But questions exist on whether having one available for health care workers and those at great risk by late October or the first three days of November would be a political move.
Five cities — Chicago, New York City, Houston, San Antonio and Philadelphia — also received documents from the CDC detailing that possibility, the New York Times reports.
As the Labor Day weekend approaches, many experts fear it will feed a new spike in cases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that the upcoming holiday weekend will be key in determining if the country gets a “running start” at controlling the virus in the fall. He stressed the importance of preventing surges that occurred after Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
The virus is prompting some events to cancel. The nation’s largest yearly Labor Day parade, held in downtown Pittsburgh, was nixed in July due to coronavirus concerns. In 2019, the parade featured about 10,000 marchers.
At least 1,074 new coronavirus deaths and 40,607 new cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, according to a New York Times database. Over the past week, there have been an average of 41,618 cases per day, a decrease of 12 percent from the average two weeks earlier.
As of Thursday, 30 states remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.
More than 6.1 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Thursday morning, and more than 185,700 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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