As concerns about the coronavirus grow with each new reported case, the University of Mississippi announced on Wednesday that it is canceling or suspending all university-related travel to China, Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea — countries under varying levels of government warning.
In a campus-wide email detailing the travel restrictions, Provost Noel Wilkin also requested that students abroad in the prohibited countries return home immediately.
Addie Perkerson, a junior finance major, has spent spring semester studying at Florence University of the Arts, but she returned home to the United States on Thursday. She said Florence was “almost apocalyptic” after returning from a trip to Switzerland last weekend.
“When we got back to Florence that night, every single pharmacy had big signs on the door saying ‘No Masks, No Hand Sanitizer,’” Perkerson said. “So that was almost kind of terrifying. We had no way to have anything preventative.”
The University of Georgia, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Tennessee, Villanova University and New York University are among the several other institutions that have canceled their study abroad programs in Italy since the alert level was increased.
Perkeson said she thought Ole Miss took longer than she expected to make the decision to cancel its study abroad program in Italy.
“We went out to an American bar here, and someone was like, ‘I’m from Syracuse, and I’m getting sent home’ or ‘I’m from UMass, and I’m getting sent home,’” Perkerson said. “It’s stressful that I met people being sent home, and our program is still open.”
Italy is one of the most popular study abroad locations among American students, second only to the United Kingdom, and almost 37,000 students studied in Italy for the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the Institute for International Education.
At least two upcoming university-sponsored trips have been canceled or suspended because of the virus. The Trent Lott Institute for Public Policy and Leadership canceled a summer trip to China, and the School of Journalism and New Media suspended a summer trip to Italy. If the State Department deems Italy a level one warning before April 1, the trip will continue as planned.
The office of the provost recently released an official page on its website for updates and information about the virus.
Coronavirus is not an immediate threat to Mississippians, but an increasing amount of person-to-person cases are expected in the coming days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The best way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to practice heightened flu-prevention techniques.
Cases have increased exponentially in the United States in the past week, and according to Dr. Bhagyashri Navalkele at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, there is limited data to know what makes it so contagious.
“The COVID-19 strain is completely new, thus there has been no previous exposures and development of immunity in population. A new virus has potential to infect and cause illnesses in multiple individuals due to lack of immunity against the virus,” Navalkele said.
Though the illness is highly contagious, more than 50% of those infected have recovered, according to a continuously updated coronavirus data tracker created by Johns Hopkins University.
“The Mississippi State Department of Health’s preparations and efforts around COVID-19 continue to be focused on surveillance activities to identify cases as quickly as possible and to limit possible person-to-person transmission,” Dr. Katie Taylor, Deputy State Epidemiologist for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said. “(We will continue) assisting healthcare facilities in preparations and providing guidance to businesses, schools and other organizations in the community about community mitigation.”
As of Thursday afternoon, there are 163 cases of the virus confirmed in the United States, and 11 have died from it. On Thursday, Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee confirmed that a 44-year-old man in Nashville tested positive for the virus, the first positive test in the state.
“We anticipate that there will continue to be COVID-19 cases in the US, including eventually in Mississippi,” Dr. Taylor said. “MSDH has plans in place to respond if a case is identified in Mississippi.”
