UNF has announced the suspension of all University-related travel to China, South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran for the Spring 2020 term. This includes study-abroad and research-related travel. Previously, only study-abroad trips to China were suspended.

Any students or UNF employees in China, South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran currently “must return to the U.S. immediately,” the University said in a UNF Marketing & Communications email sent to the Osprey community on March 2.

In addition, the University requested all members of the campus community who have recently traveled abroad or have been in contact with someone who traveled abroad to undergo a 14 day self-quarantine “even if you have no symptoms of illness.”

A UNF professor alerted students to the addition of the following statement to their syllabus:

“In the event of disruption of normal classroom activities due to an emergency such as hurricane, pandemic, or other unforeseen event, or combination of events, the format of this course may be modified in order to enable completion of the course requirements. In that event, you will be provided with changes to the course syllabus. In essence, this will become an online course. It will be your responsibility as a student participant to be proactive during any emergency to find instructions I will post through Canvas and email. You must check for changes daily and act upon them.”

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected 80,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). There are close to 3,000 deaths worldwide. Though most of the cases are in China and neighboring countries, Italy has seen a sharp spike in the number of infected and over 20 dead.

The University was prompted to announce the suspension of travel to China, South Korea, and Italy when the CDC issued a Level 3 travel warning for those countries. Level 3 means “avoid nonessential travel.”

View previous Spinnaker coronavirus coverage here, here, here, here, and here.

While the CDC has determined the risk to the American public to be low, there are 59 confirmed cases in the United States, according to the World Health Organization’s situation report for Feb. 28. The World Health Organization’s risk assessment at the global level is “very high.”

At this time, Florida has 2 confirmed cases and over 150 pending cases of possible COVID-19.

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