US university switches to remote learning after virus cases spike

A university in the US state of North Carolina announced Monday it will switch to entirely virtual classes for its nearly 20,000 students, after dozens tested positive for COVID-19 in the first week back at school. An announcement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that 177 students who tested positive are currently in isolation, and an additional 349 were placed in quarantine.

 The positive test rate on campus jumped to 13.6 percent last week from 2.8 percent the previous week. The university's more than 10,000 graduate students could continue to attend classes in-person. Among the 151 universities that decided to hold classes entirely virtually are the prestigious Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.