US varsities scramble to deal with outbreak

Raleigh (US), August 18

North Carolina’s flagship university cancelled in-person classes for undergraduates just a week into the fall semester Monday as college campuses around the US scramble to deal with Covid clusters linked in some cases to student housing, off-campus parties and packed bars.

WHO for widespread flu vaccination this year

GENEVA: The world must administer widespread anti-flu vaccinations this year to help ward off the risk of Covid infections, WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward said on Tuesday. WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told a briefing in Geneva that studies to date showed that less than 10% of the population has evidence of antibodies against the virus. Reuters

The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill said it would switch to remote learning on Wednesday and make arrangements for students who wanted to leave campus housing.

Officials at UNC school — East Carolina University — said they had identified a cluster at a dorm. They didn’t say whether they were considering switching to online classes. At Oklahoma State in Stillwater, where a widely circulated video over the weekend showed maskless students packed into a nightclub, officials confirmed 23 cases at an off-campus sorority house. The university placed the students living there in isolation and prohibited them from leaving. The University of Notre Dame reported 58 cases. — AP