College restarts tied to COVID-19 rises in young adults

College restarts tied to COVID-19 rises in young adults US cases in college-age people more than doubled as students went back to school, the CDC says. CIDRAP

As college students returned to campuses in August, COVID-19 cases in that age-group at the national level more than doubled, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today, a day after federal officials announced a new push to help elementary and secondary schools reopen by arming them with rapid tests.

The report on the COVID-19 spike in college-age adults came from an analysis of state health department data spanning Aug 2 to Sep 5, a time when many schools resumed in-person learning for the first time since March. The CDC said about 45% of people ages 18 to 22 are enrolled in colleges and universities. ...

Details about the COVID-19 spike in college-age adults appear today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, alongside a separate report on COVID-19 clusters that emerged soon after students returned to a North Carolina university campus.

In the first study, researchers found that during the study period, 15.6% of COVID-19 cases were among the college-age group. Incidence increased 55% nationally, with the biggest increases seen in the Northeast and the Midwest. The level of testing increased over that time frame as well, likely due to screening practices at colleges, but researchers found that not all of the rise in cases was driven by the increase in testing. Cases rose 2.1-fold, while testing increased by 1.5-fold.

Several factors could have fueled the rise in college-age cases, including behavior changes or increased risk related to multiple policy changes over that period. Detailed exposure analysis could help shed light on drivers of those trends, the authors said. To prevent spread on campuses and in the broader community, college students, staff, and faculty must take steps to curb spread in campus settings, such as wearing masks and observing hand hygiene, the researchers noted, adding that transmission by young adults outside of campus settings can also occur in any community where they live, work, and socialize.

In the second study, North Carolina health officials described COVID-19 tracking in the first 3 weeks of August after school resumed at a university. Cases rapidly increased in the first 2 weeks, which included 18 clusters of 5 or more epidemiologically linked cases. In total, there were 670 cases among students, staff, and faculty. On Aug 19, following the steep rise in cases, all classes transitioned to online and the school took steps to reduce on-campus housing density.  ...