News Briefs

University of Missouri moving online after Thanksgiving due to COVID spread

By: - November 12, 2020 3:43 pm

The deaths data, which the department calls “probable” COVID-19 fatalities, is being added eight months after the department began reporting antigen-identified infections in its daily report (image courtesy of CDC).

In an effort to reduce student population in the Columbia region during a surge of COVID-19 cases, the University of Missouri announced Thursday that classes would be moved online after Thanksgiving break.

“While our experts say that MU students have not presented a direct burden to the local hospitals because they have not needed hospitalization, we are all members of the broader community,” Mun Choi, chanceller and UM system president, said in a statement. “And as the community strives to gain control of the virus, a temporary thinning of the student population is helpful.”

The university said its Columbia campus has had an 80 percent decrease in student cases since Labor Day, when cases peaked.

The Department of Health and Senior Services reported this morning a record 4,603 new infections across the state, the third consecutive day of more than 4,000 new cases and the fifth time in the last six days.

The new cases reported Thursday pushed the seven-day average of reported cases above 4,000 per day for the first time, to 4,113.6 per day. The seven-day average was 2,291 per day on Nov. 1 and 1,057 per day on Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, three hospitals in Columbia launched a new color-coded system Tuesday for warning the community when stress from a rising number of COVID-19 patients makes it difficult to take additional patients or provide care for other ailments.

Creative Commons License

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.

Jason Hancock
Jason Hancock

Jason Hancock has spent two decades covering politics and policy for news organizations across the Midwest, with most of that time focused on the Missouri statehouse as a reporter for The Kansas City Star. A three-time National Headliner Award winner, he helped launch The Missouri Independent in October 2020.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MORE FROM AUTHOR