In my recent post, I provided some evidence that COVID-19 cases in Tennessee may have peaked in mid-August. A significant risk, however, is that the re-opening of schools may cause this trend to reverse. A recent New York Times article reported that this is already happening at universities across the country. Three of the top five are in Alabama. However, this data can be misleading. The University of Alabama in Birmingham, which is at the top of the list, had its medical center cases added to cases among university students, faculty, and staff, artificially inflating the number of cases by a significant amount. The true number is 239, which would drop the school out of the top 15.
One interesting fact is that all the top schools on this list are in the southern United States. The only school outside the south in the top 10 is Notre Dame, which just announced it is returning to in-person classes after going virtual after a spike in cases at the start of the fall semester three weeks ago.