Local

Lenoir-Rhyne University moves to online learning as cases rise across Catawba County

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Students at Lenoir-Rhyne University are now learning exclusively online and students are being asked to move home early if possible because of a growing COVID-19 case count in Catawba County.

The university said before school started that they required all students and faculty to take a COVID-19 test before arriving on campus.

Since then, school leaders said they have been averaging 6-9 cases a week and only recently began to see an uptick of about 9-12 cases, which they believed was manageable.

While there have been very few cases on campus, there has been a 300% increase in cases in Catawba County overall.

>> Watch the video above as Channel 9′s Dave Faherty visits campus and shows how this is a strong example of how cases anywhere in the community can impact all of us.