For Covid-19 reasons, UNCW professors can move their classes online in 15-day increments portcitydaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from portcitydaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Remnants of a socially distanced-marked lawn remain outside the university union, where Adirondack chairs were placed in white circles, personal bubbles, during the height of the pandemic. UNCW lifted its mask mandate Wednesday. (Port City Daily/Preston Lennon)
WILMINGTON Five days after Gov. Roy Cooper lifted the mask mandate for most settings, UNCW announced Wednesday it would follow suit and significantly curtail Covid-19 restrictions.
The university just began its first round of summer classes a period that even before the pandemic was dominated by online instruction and the campus is sparsely populated. But for fall 2021, university leaders have planned for months to host a traditional semester; the latest easing of Covid-19 directives adds momentum.
UNCW achieves vaccination approval, eager to offer students shots portcitydaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from portcitydaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
After testing more than 2,000 students for Covid-19 last week, UNCW reported only four positive cases. (Port City Daily/Preston Lennon)
WILMINGTON Knowing that many professors become eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine within a month, UNCW hopes to eventually operate as a vaccine provider.
The university sought approvals from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, the gatekeepers of vaccine supply, but its application has not yet been approved. DHHS officials repeatedly emphasize that onboarding new providers will be a slow process, until the weekly vaccine shipments from the federal government substantially increase in size.
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Katrin Wesner-Harts, the university’s top health official, recalled the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, when UNCW administered more than 3,300 vaccines to community members.
UNCW purchased 100,000 BinaxNow Covid-19 tests made by Abbott Labs, and expects to begin testing 6,500 students a week beginning Feb. 8. All students living on campus will be tested weekly, and off-campus students with in-person classes will be tested bi-weekly. (Port City Daily/Preston Lennon)
WILMINGTON UNCW ordered 100,000 Covid-19 rapid tests to fuel a massive testing program, catering to all students who live or attend class on campus, a university spokesperson said Wednesday.
Along with mandatory tests students received prior to their spring semester return, the “
surveillance testing” program is a new component of the university’s pandemic response.
Katrin Wesner-Harts, UNCW’s top health official, said these initiatives were not widely discussed at universities while administrations were preparing to open campuses in the fall. By the spring, after Covid-19 outbreaks marked campuses nationwide, re-entry testing and a set-in-stone process for testing students t