The following article is a ‘remix’ of this New York Times article. The text is almost entirely from the New York Times, the visualizations are mine.
Thousands of new coronavirus cases continue to emerge on college campuses. A New York Times survey of more than 1,700 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution and every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports — has revealed more than 178,000 cases and at least 70 deaths since the pandemic began.
Most of the cases have been announced since students returned to campus for the fall term. Most of the deaths were reported in the spring and involved college employees, not students. But at least two students — Jamain Stephens, a football player at California University of Pennsylvania, and Chad Dorrill, a sophomore at Appalachian State — have died in recent weeks after contracting the virus.
This map shows how colleges have been handling COVID-19. Each dot is a college; the size and color of the dot corresponds to the number of cases the college has. You can hover over a dot to see more information about it.
More than 45 colleges have reported at least 1,000 cases over the course of the pandemic, and more than 300 colleges have reported more than 100 cases. Around the country, some of the metro areas with the most cases per capita in recent days — including Boone, N.C.; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and Provo, Utah — have sizable outbreaks at universities.
At Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, where several students living off campus tested positive, officials moved most classes online and put in effect a broader testing regimen. At several colleges, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Kent State University, some residents of fraternities, sororities or dorms have been asked to quarantine after outbreaks. And at SUNY Cortland, administrators announced a two-week “study-in-place” period as case numbers spiked.
“I will not try to sugarcoat it: The next two weeks will be challenging,” the school’s president, Erik J. Bitterbaum, wrote in a letter to students and employees. “But it’s what we need to do in order to continue functioning as a campus and a concerned member of the Cortland community.”
This visualization shows the states’ Covid performance on the left plot, and each colleges’ Covid performance on the right plot. If you select a particular state from the left plot, it will filter to just colleges within that state on the right plot. You can also pan and zoom in the charts as well as hover over any points for more information. On the left plot, each dot represents a state. The size of the dot represents that state’s population and its color represents the proportion of total cases to its population. On the right plot, each dot represents a college. The size and color of those dots represents its total cases. As there is no national standard for collecting this data, different colleges qualify their total cases differently. For example, some colleges remove students who recover from their counts. As a result, I’ve shown this plot with the proportion of cases at that college to cases within the last week for that state and on the next plot below, the proportion of college cases to the states’ total cases.
As there is no national standard for collecting this data, different colleges qualify their total cases differently. For example some colleges remove students who recover from their counts. As a result I’ve shown this plot with the proportion of college cases to to the statewide total and on the plot above, the proportion of college cases to the states cases from the past week.
This data shows where the virus has been identified over the course of the pandemic, not necessarily where it is prevalent now. The Times has counted more than 171,000 additional cases at colleges since late July; of those, more than 48,000 cases came since late September. Tens of thousands of those infections have been reported in recent days, but some universities just started reporting data, and The Times recently contacted others for the first time.
Because colleges report data differently, and because cases continued to emerge even in the months when most campuses were closed, The Times is counting all reported cases since the start of the pandemic.
Though some universities decided to hold most or all classes online this fall, others reopened their campuses with extensive rules on face coverings, social distancing and gatherings. Many universities, hoping to quickly identify cases and prevent broader outbreaks, have tested aggressively for the virus, detecting cases in some instances that might otherwise have been missed.
With no national tracking system, and statewide data available only sporadically, colleges are making their own rules for how to tally infections. While The Times’s survey is believed to be the most comprehensive account available, it is also a near-certain undercount. Among the colleges contacted by The Times, most published case information online or responded to requests for case numbers. But at least 140 others ignored inquiries or refused to answer questions. More than 80 have reported zero cases. The Times obtained case data through open records requests at several public universities that would not otherwise provide numbers.
Given the disparities in size, reopening plans and transparency among universities, this data should not be used to make campus-to-campus comparisons. Some colleges subtract cases from their tallies once people recover. Some report only tests performed on campus. And some initially provided data but then stopped.
This visualization helps to show the impact that colleges are having on each states’ Covid performance. You can pan and zoom in on the charts as well as hover over any points for more information.. The x-axis is the total number of cases that are college related, and the y-axis is the proportion of that state’s total college cases to the state’s total cases overall. The size of the dot correlates with the population of the state and its color correlates to the proportion of college cases to state cases.
The Times is counting reported cases among university students and employees in all fields, including those whose roles as doctors, nurses, pharmacists or medical students put them at higher risk of contracting the virus. At least five universities that have a broad range of programs, including medical units, have reported dozens of cases tied to health care. Those cases are listed above as a subset of their universitywide totals.
Some universities did not provide data for cases at their medical schools, hospitals or clinics. Some included those cases in their campuswide counts, but did not specify how many. Other universities that are primarily focused on medical training, or that reported a small number of cases tied to clinical programs..
Article:
Cai, W., Ivory, D., Semple, K., Smith, et al (2020, August 26). Tracking Covid at U.S. Colleges and Universities. Retrieved October 20, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html
Data: