Sep 22, 2020, 11:02 PM
(From The New York Times) The number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has jumped more than 15% in the past 10 days. It is the sharpest increase since the late spring, signaling a long-feared “second wave” of infections and deaths coinciding with the cooler fall weather and flu season. Unlike the earlier summer surge in the U.S., this spike also coincides with a rising number of cases globally. The U.S. may be on course for over 400,000 coronavirus deaths by year’s end, according to the latest projection from the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, whose modeling was influential in the White House’s early coronavirus response.
(From NPR) The rising number of COVID-19 cases on U.S. college campuses has driven a number of universities to impose a two-week quarantine. In Colorado, students at the University of Colorado Boulder were asked by the local health department to only leave their homes or dorms for essential needs. This follows earlier lockdowns like that at Notre Dame University, a school that came out of a two-week quarantine and resumed in-person classes afterwards. Notre Dame reported lower case numbers following the two weeks, suggesting the pause may have been effective. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which mandated a mini-lockdown following higher-than-expected positive cases of coronavirus, also found its numbers decreased, though experts there said it was too early to tell if the measures were successful.
(From Inside Higher Ed) New survey data from the American College Health Association suggest colleges are decreasing their funding to health services, keeping residence halls open and varying widely with regard to testing. Of respondents to the survey who knew their health center budget allocation for the 2021 fiscal year, 43% said that budget would be a decrease from FY20 funding. And although 40% said they were expecting to hire medical professionals, nearly one-quarter said they were expecting reductions for those staff instead. Sixteen and 17% of respondents also said they expected staff reductions in mental health and health promotion services, respectively.
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