Nearly 17,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported at more than 100 colleges and universities in recent weeks as students return to campuses while the pandemic rages on.
NBC 5 Investigates is tracking cases at more than 100 colleges and universities - more than 50 in Illinois and the greater Chicago area, as well as more than 50 schools most attended by Illinois students.
Those schools include 32 that don't appear to report their cases online - meaning the true total number of cases may be higher - and many where classes haven't started or began barely one week ago.
At colleges and universities within the state of Illinois, more than 2,752 cases have been reported as of Thursday - though that total is likely higher becuase 24 of those schools don't reveal information on their cases online.
At the 14 schools in the Big Ten conference, more than 4,329 cases of coronavirus have been reported, even though some of those schools haven't started classes yet.
Schools in the greater Chicago area, including northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin, at least 903 cases have been reported, though that doesn't include 22 local schools that don't publish information online, like most of the area's community colleges.
Nine of Illinois' 12 public four-year universities have reported a total of 2,455 new coronavirus cases on their campuses so far this fall. The other three - Northeastern Illinois, Governor's State and Chicago State universities - don't publish case information online. All three of those schools have a large population of commuter students, which could complicate reporting.
NBC 5 Investigates is only looking at cases that have arisen during the fall, purposely excluding cases that occurred on campuses in the spring and summer, in order to concentrate solely on how the pandemic spreads as students return for this semester.
You can use the tool below to see the number of coronavirus cases each school has reported, sorting by school, cases and more, or searching for a particular term (like Illinois or Indiana) to narrow down specific schools. This tool will be updated each evening.
