Coronavirus updates: Colleges see ‘staggering’ drop in freshman enrollment
The Washington state Department of Health reported on Thursday 676 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths.
Pierce County reported 85 cases Thursday and no new deaths. Pierce County has a total of 182 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Thursday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 96,185, cases and 2,232 deaths, up from 95,509 cases and 2,221 deaths Wednesday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
Twenty-six people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Sept. 26, the most recent date with complete data. Average daily hospitalizations peaked in early April at 78.
On Oct. 4, the most recent date with complete data, 6,844 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.6% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 3.4%. More than 2.1 million tests have been conducted in Washington.
The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 24,610 cases and 791 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,657 cases and 267 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 8,995, according to the state’s tally.
All counties in Washington have cases. Eight counties have case counts of fewer than 100.
US colleges see ‘staggering’ drop in freshman enrollment amid COVID-19, report says
Freshman enrollment is down at colleges nationwide, falling a staggering 16% compared to last year, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
While all campuses except four-year, for-profit colleges have seen a dip in registrations, first-year students account for nearly 70% of the total decline in undergraduate enrollment — a drop that has taken researchers by surprise.
“With more data, the downward trends identified in September’s First Look report appear steeper, while also emerging for more states and student groups,” NSCRC’s executive director Doug Shapiro said in a statement. “Most strikingly, freshman students are by far the biggest decline of any group from last year, with a decrease of 16.1% nationally and a 22.7% drop at community colleges in particular.”
Overall, undergraduate enrollment has slipped 4% below what it was last year, and a jump in graduate enrollment seen in early fall has slumped to 2.7% percent, according to the report. Researchers say these uncommon enrollment trends can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered college campuses earlier this year and has forced many to switch to remote learning.
A number of institutions have reported outbreaks since the start of the fall semester, including the University of Georgia, Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina, which moved all its undergraduate classes online earlier this year due to the virus.
Uncertainty about the semester ahead has prompted some incoming students to take a year off, better known as a “gap year,” before starting college. A survey of 2,000 students by the American Council on Education and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in the early months of the pandemic found that 17 percent of high school seniors were considering deferring their college admissions.
“It’s weird that more people aren’t doing it,” Asher Powers, 19, who plans to spend a year in Israel before starting at Muhlenberg University, told The Morning Call in Pennsylvania. “This would be the perfect time.”
A look inside COVID-19 testing procedures for UW Huskies athletics
When Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced the conference’s COVID-19 testing initiative in early September, he called the partnership with Quidel Corp. “groundbreaking.”
Thanks to Quidel providing daily antigen testing for close-contact sports, the Pac-12 was able to schedule a seven-game football season starting Nov. 7 and allow basketball to open with the rest of the country at the end of November.
By the start of October, UW had the necessary equipment on campus, and it’s currently being used by three teams: football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
Robert Scheidegger is UW’s associate athletic director for health and wellness and the football team’s head athletic trainer. Scheidegger also serves as the head of the athletic department’s COVID-19 operations committee. He’s been organizing UW’s testing process, and he spoke with The News Tribune this week about the process.
Trump says coronavirus is ‘rounding the corner.’ Data and experts suggest otherwise
President Donald Trump said during a Thursday town hall event that COVID-19 is “rounding the corner,” despite data and experts predicting an increase in cases during the winter.
Trump defended his handling of the pandemic at the town hall, which took place in Miami and aired on NBC. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also spoke at a town hall, which aired the same time as Trump’s on ABC.
“We’re a winner,” Trump said. “We have done an amazing job. And (the coronavirus pandemic is) rounding the corner. And we have the vaccines coming and we have the therapies coming.”
“Relative to the rest of the world we have the worst death rate,” moderator Savannah Guthrie replied.
“I have things right here that will tell you exactly the opposite,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come less than three weeks from Election Day as he faces criticism for his response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The president has long downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, predicting dozens of times that it will “go away” as cases and deaths continue to rise, The Washington Post reported. In February, he said “a lot of people think (coronavirus) goes away in April with the heat” and, in the same month, predicted that coronavirus cases would be “down to close to zero” in “a couple of days.”
In June, Trump said the coronavirus was “dying out,” video shows, and in August he said “it is going to be gone soon.”
More than 7.9 million in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday, Oct. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 217,000 have died nationwide. The U.S. leads the world in total deaths attributed to the coronavirus, data show, but is fifth in the world for deaths per 100,000 people behind Peru, Brazil, Spain and Mexico.
COVID-19 forces international glass event booked for Tacoma to adjust its plans
While a high-profile glass conference announced earlier this year for Tacoma has been postponed, other bookings continue to move forward, according to a local tourism representative.
The reshuffling reflects an industry trying to balance coronavirus concerns to avoid superspreader events with continued bookings to keep the industry and, in turn, the regional economy afloat.
The Glass Art Society’s international conference scheduled for May 2021 is now scheduled for May 18-21, 2022.
The society is partnering in organizing the conference with Travel Tacoma – Mt. Rainier Tourism and Sports and the Museum of Glass.
“The international contingent is a strong one at the festival, so the organizers had to make a tough decision with all the uncertainty around international travel,” Matt Wakefield, senior communications manager for Travel Tacoma, told The News Tribune in an email Wednesday.
The decision was first announced to participants in September.
The society’s 2020 conference planned to take place in Sweden was canceled earlier this year, replaced with a virtual conference as the first waves of the pandemic hit worldwide.
Another virtual conference is planned for May 20-22, 2021.
Other plans continue to move forward.
“There have been a few meetings and events that have postponed or rescheduled from the first half of 2021, but overall, we’re seeing our usual mix of sporting events, corporate business, association and government meetings,” Wakefield said.
“Right now, that means we have 14 large events booked for the first half of 2021, with a total of 11,000 expected attendees and more than 7,000 room-nights. We’re continuing to book meetings for 2021 and beyond, starting with regional business in the short term,” he added.
Craig Sailor, Lauren Kirschman and Debbie Cockrell contributed to this report.
