Many college students will be back online for at least part of the fall semester, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is now forcing some schools to shut their doors just days after opening.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is hitting the brakes on in-person classes for undergraduates. Instead, it is moving online starting tomorrow.

The decision comes after a rash of COVID-19 cases were confirmed on campus.

"The only thing that I think we don't know is at what point do these schools start to shut down again. The virus is still spreading, I mean this is not the time to open up and I don't know if I sound like a crazy person saying that or not, but that is the truth,” says Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent.

The number of known cases of COVID-19 in the United States doubles roughly every two months, according to Johns Hopkins University, and university health experts say the country needs to be proactive.

"If 95% of the country just simply wore masks at this point it would start to bend this curve downward and save tens of thousands of lives," says Dr. Gupta.

The United States has reported more than 1,000 known COVID-19 deaths almost every day this month.