How many coronavirus cases are at NC colleges? Here’s how to keep track of them.

Since North Carolina universities and colleges opened up to in-person classes in early August, clusters of coronavirus cases have been identified and reported.

UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, East Carolina University and Appalachian State University have all identified at least one cluster of cases within two weeks of classes starting. North Carolina defines a cluster as five or more cases in close proximity.

Some clusters have been found among athletic teams, while others are a result of off-campus gatherings of students. UNC-Chapel Hill announced Aug. 17 that all undergraduates would shift to remote learning. On Aug. 20, NC State announced a similar move for undergraduates, and students living in residence halls can stay if they wish.

UNC System universities have online dashboards to track their COVID-19 cases, tests and rooms available for quarantining or isolating.

But the same information isn’t available at each campus. Here are a few notes to keep in mind.

▪ Some track cases by students, staff and contractors who aren’t university employees. Some consolidate them together.

▪ Some campuses say they will update the dashboards daily, while others plan to do so on a weekly basis.

▪ When it comes to cumulative tests, there is no consistent start date. UNC-Chapel Hill started tracking in February. N.C. State and UNC-Wilmington are cumulative since March. Western Carolina University started tracking July 1. Most other campuses started at the beginning of August.

▪ Many private schools don’t have dashboards, and coronavirus case information is not available yet for Shaw University, St. Augustine’s University and Peace University.

With the interactive table below, we plan to keep track of cases at all UNC System universities, along with some private institutions such as Duke University.

For more information, click on the links for each school to go directly to the dashboards.

Updated 12 p.m. Aug. 20

This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 12:37 PM with the headline "How many coronavirus cases are at NC colleges? Here’s how to keep track of them.."