Outbreaks continue in college towns as tens of thousands of returning students result in hundreds, often thousands, of cases. More than 25,000 students in 37 states had tested positive for COVID-19 at college as of last week. Some campuses are closing, sending kids home. Others are cracking down on rule to prevent parties and social gatherings.
You will notice that while reports of cases rise, reports of hospitalizations are few and far between. The danger of college students getting COVID-19 isn’t to themselves, it’s the possibility that they might spread it to others who are more vulnerable.
For example, sending kids home may simply spread the disease into the communities where students live, infecting their parents and possibly older relatives. It may be safer to students quarantined in dorm rooms until the initial cases die down.
In either case, its clear COVID-19 is playing hell with people’s education and their lives.
France Reports Record Number of COVID-19 Cases
Despite campus outbreaks, coronavirus cases continue to drop across the U.S. even as cases grow in Europe. France just hit a record high of 8,975 cases in a single day. Spain was about half that, at 4,503 new cases. The global case count is 26.94 million with 880,624 deaths,
The U.S. reported 42,080 cases in the past 24 hours. On a per-capita basis, France, which has a population of 67 million, is seeing faster growth than the U.S. Of course, France’s total of 347,268 is far below the 6.26 million cases we’ve seen in the U.S.
In the U.S., there were 711 deaths reported yesterday for a total count of 188,409. The number of daily deaths attributed to COVID-19 continues to drop in the U.S. The New York Times reports that deaths are increasing in only 10 states, including some unlikely places such as Hawaii, West Virginia and Arkansas.
The New York Times has changed the way it reports cases so that they are no longer reporting states where case growth is stead. They now break it down as follows:
High and staying high: 17
High but going down: 2
Lower but going up: 9
Low and staying low: 26
