2020 Coronavirus Outbreak - The Daily Tar Heel

UNC students walk on an empty campus on March 5, 2021. Students recount their initial reactions to the country shutting down due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

Two years of COVID-19: A look back on UNC student experiences

By Hannah Rosenberger and Jennifer Tran | Jan. 25

Since March 2020, UNC students have experienced a mixture of virtual and in-person learning, as the University has adjusted to providing a college experience during the era of COVID-19. From the class of 2021 to 2025, The Daily Tar Heel spoke to UNC students who reflected on their experiences throughout the last two years of the pandemic in this eight-part look back series.

Junior Rhyan Given, pictured on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, is one of many students attending both online and in-person classes this semester.

Word on the street: students adjust to spring semester classes

By Collin Tadlock | Jan. 18

As the spring semester begins, students are navigating the return to both in-person and virtual classes.

Columnist Hannah Kaufman translates UNC administration's murky COVID-19 communications.

Column: Translating UNC's COVID-19 communications

By Hannah Kaufman | Jan. 17

"I wish I could decipher even more from these emails, but after six hours of nonstop reading, I have a headache like a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Unless ... I hope it’s not … I’d better get tested. Has anyone read the emails well enough to know where I can do that?"

The Editorial Board writes how to obtain an at-home COVID-19 test and the accessibility surrounding the process.

Editorial: How to get at-home COVID-19 test kits

By Editorial Board | Jan. 16

"Although these options to obtain a free COVID-19 test are steps forward, they aren’t steps that are large enough. With the rise in omicron cases, it’s imperative that these tests and resources are available to everyone, regardless of geographic, socioeconomic and financial status."

Students line up for COVID testing outside of UNC Rams Head Recreation Center on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021.

Column: UNC's inconsistency in COVID-19 testing helps no one

By Abbas Hasan | Jan. 16

"The decision to move to appointment-only asymptomatic testing is emblematic of how UNC students, faculty and staff have to handle this pandemic: We are left to figure things out on our own."

A discarded mask lies under empty chairs in Kenan Stadium on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.

Editorial: What mask should you be wearing?

By Editorial Board | Jan. 16

"Masking has been proven to be a critical public health tool for preventing the spread of COVID-19. And to protect yourself, others and the community, it’s important to wear the most protective mask that you can wear consistently."

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley speaks at a coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022.

Kody Kinsley assumes role as NCDHHS secretary, replacing Cohen

By Ian Walniuk | Jan. 12

Kody Kinsley's priorities include leading the state's pandemic response amid a surge of the omicron variant and responding to the state's ongoing opioid crisis.

A ramp leads to the Old Well on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.

Column: Disabled people are experts on our own health

By Nicholas Li-wen Hatcher | Jan. 10

"Now, I’m assumed to add so little to my classes that it is perfectly acceptable when I’m not really a part of them. I see campus opening back up and administrators sticking their heads in the sand, and the only decision being delegated to me is whether or not I risk my life to attend my classes. That’s a difficult decision to make."

Downtown Lincolnton, NC, is pictured on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. Lincolnton is one of many rural towns in North Carolina.

Editorial: Pandemic highlights rural healthcare disparity

By Editorial Board | Jan. 10

"The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated health care barriers for rural communities, including health care provider shortages, insufficient internet availability, geographic location and other issues."

Pharmacist and 1995 UNC alumna Sue Patel prepares a syringe with a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 in the Friday Center on Chapel Hill.

Column: UNC continues to research omicron as variant spreads

By Rajee Ganesan | Jan. 10

"With research on omicron developing from here on out, new recommendations and policies are likely to emerge to protect the general public from the variant. For the next several weeks, it’s imperative that institutions and individuals take all the measures that they can to prevent the surge from affecting our local communities."

The Duke University Chapel on Duke’s West Campus, as photographed in 2017, serves as a symbol of the university.

Editorial: UNC's COVID-19 policies fall behind other elite institutions

By Editorial Board | Jan. 10

"Should UNC have taken a similar approach to what the likes of Duke and Yale have done and postpone the start of the semester? Or even completely move instruction online for the first few weeks?"

A student walks across Polk Place on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, two days before the first day of classes.

Column: UNC's spring plans delay the inevitable for graduate instructors

By Zari Taylor | Jan. 9

"Remote learning isn’t fun for students or instructors, and the prospect of returning to Zoom is daunting. But I carry the burden of doing what I can to slow the spread and eliminate at least one site of potential exposure. This is a burden the University has allotted to myself and other graduate instructors and faculty."

The front entrance to South Building is pictured on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.

Editorial: UNC's lack of leadership isn't new, but it's still unacceptable

By Editorial Board | Jan. 9

"We’ve seen it before — the lack of leadership to condemn racism and discrimination on campus, the lack of leadership to offer attendance flexibility during a global pandemic and the lack of leadership to mandate a COVID-19 vaccine."

Editorial: Relaxing COVID-19 policies is dangerous – UNC does it anyway

By Editorial Board | Jan. 9

"UNC administration cannot be the master of both worlds, although it may try, because there is only one right course of action – the one that protects students, faculty and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities we reside within. Anything else is negligent."

Opinion Editor Rajee Ganesan sits in an empty Kenan Stadium on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.

Column: The "Carolina Experience" comes at a cost

By Rajee Ganesan | Jan. 9

"I’m dying to see a UNC-Duke basketball game in the Dean Dome, graduate next to my friends at convocation and sign my name atop the bell tower. But if the “Carolina Experience” comes at the cost of the health of the community — I don’t want it."

Op-ed: UNC isn't ready for the omicron variant

Jan. 9

"When we do eventually return to the comforts of a residential experience, we must do so not because of loyalty to the past but rather because of a commitment to addressing the discomforts of our present."

The Faculty Executive Committee held a special meeting on Dec. 23, 2021 to discuss return-to-campus concerns.

Faculty Executive Committee discusses spring return-to-campus concerns at UNC

By Brianna Atkinson | Dec. 23

The University has no plans to delay the spring semester as of now, Provost Bob Blouin said at a UNC Faculty Executive Committee special meeting Thursday. Any changes to spring semester operations will be announced by Jan. 3, he said. The FEC also discussed concerns about the return to campus amid the rapidly spreading omicron COVID-19 variant, masking protocols and the potential for a vaccine mandate.

Members of the Carolina COVID-19 Student Services Corps volunteer at the Frank Porter Graham Union testing site on Nov. 5.

UNC announces updated COVID-19 policies for spring semester return

By Allie Kelly | Dec. 23

UNC announced updated COVID-19 policies in a campus-wide email Wednesday, as cases of the omicron variant rise across the country and in Orange County.

A student studies on the quad near Carroll Hall while adhering to social distancing guidelines on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020.

Editorial: How UNC can plan for a spring semester with COVID-19 variants

By Editorial Board | Dec. 21

"History is repeating itself – as public health professionals warned us it would – and it’s up to UNC to ensure that we do not mirror the mistakes of the past."

A vaccine dose lies ready to be administered in the Student Union on March 31, 2021. As North Carolina began to allow college students to receive coronavirus vaccines, UNC opened a clinic on campus where students can receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Orange County reports first case of omicron variant of COVID-19

By Madison Ward | Dec. 17

The Orange County Health Department reported the county's first COVID-19 case of the omicron variant in a press release Friday.