About three weeks ago, the University of Mississippi started its fall semester, bringing students from around the country back to Lafayette County. The university had hoped its mix of in-person and online classes and mask-wearing guidelines, among other measures, would be enough to prevent an outbreak.
On paper, the college appears to be doing well. According to recent numbers, the University of Mississippi has recorded about 430 confirmed cases since Aug. 24, the first day of classes in Oxford, and still has plenty of housing for those who have been infected or exposed to the virus.
Data in Lafayette County, home to the Mississippi flagship, paint a starker picture. An analysis by USA TODAY shows the county has one of the highest per-capita rates of coronavirus infections in the country, at 1,053 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks.
The rising positive cases were expected with the return of students, but the increase remains concerning, said Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill. Oxford is both a college town and a place where people come to retire. In the past month, Tannehill said, 26 residents at a local veterans' home have died in connection to the coronavirus.
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Across the country, college students' mounting coronavirus outbreaks have become an urgent public health issue. Of the 25 hottest outbreaks in the U.S., communities heavy with college students represent 19 of them.
They span the map from Georgia Southern University to the University of North Dakota, from Virginia Tech to Central Texas College. In some of the college towns, like Pullman, Washington, home to Washington State, students aren't even taking classes in person, yet are still crowding apartments and filling local bars.
Of the 25 hottest outbreaks in the U.S., communities heavy with college students represent 19 of them. Communities with the most total cases per capita during the past two weeks:
In Lafayette County, Mississippi, the community had already seen how lax student behavior can spread the virus. A June outbreak in the town of Oxford was tied to Greek life recruitment parties.
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“I definitely feel a kind of heightened sense of COVID agoraphobia now that (undergraduate) students are back in town,” said Katie Turner, a doctoral student studying English.
The city of Oxford has issued 60 citations since the beginning of August to people violating social distancing guidelines.
Most students are trying to do the right thing,” said Tannehill, the mayor. “Maybe they’re just very much underestimating the danger in large social gatherings.”
The super-spreading nature of the coronavirus is stretching the abilities of universities to quarantine students and halt the virus' progress, leading to drastic consequences.
At Indiana University in Bloomington, administrators quarantined three-fourths of Greek houses on campus and suggested students vacate the remaining houses and find new places to live. Graduate students at the University of Michigan launched a strike on Tuesday that remained ongoing as of Thursday, refusing to teach undergraduates over the university's response to the virus. And after seeing a sharp rise in cases, the University of Wisconsin in Madison recently shifted to online instruction for two weeks and quarantined two large residence halls after asking students to "limit their movement." One Dane County official even asked the university to send students home, a movethat could give relief to the community butfurther spread the virus across the country.
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