STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State University has decided to restrict travel to countries with several confirmed cases of coronavirus and has had to cancel some educational class trips because of it.
Penn State University has placed restrictions on both students and faculty members traveling to countries hit by the coronavirus.
The university issued this statement regarding the restrictions:
"Penn State has placed China and South Korea on the restricted list for university-affiliated international travel for students. University-affiliated travel to China and South Korea for faculty and staff … would require …approval."
In addition, the university has offered students studying abroad in Italy and Japan the chance to leave their programs early. The university has also decided to cancel spring break study abroad trips.
Several international class trips have already been canceled by the university, but, one class trip to Vietnam is still happening. The professor and students going on that trip are keeping a close eye on the virus.
"We are taking our cues from the university's Global Program's office and they are monitoring things very closely and we are monitoring them closely, too," said Professor Katie O'Toole.
"Right now, Vietnam seems like they have a pretty good grasp on controlling the outbreak. We were told there were 16 cases in Vietnam and now 15 of them have made a full recovery," said senior Jack Hirsh.
The class plans to leave for Vietnam next week. There is still a chance that the university may cancel the trip as a precautionary measure.
"I am, of course, concerned that it could be canceled, and we're prepared for that. We know that that's a reality because the health and wellbeing of our students has got to be our guiding principle, so that's what we are going to put first," O'Toole said.
The university also said in the statement that they plan to monitor all university-affiliated travel in the coming weeks and will continue to make decisions based on the information provided to them from health organizations.
At this point, no Penn State students have come down with the coronavirus.