The University of Texas announced Wednesday it would suspend all trips to China for undergraduate students in response to the outbreak of a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus.
Additionally, a UT committee that reviews travel to restricted regions will have to approve any requests from faculty, staff and graduate students who want to go to China. The country has joined Honduras, Nigeria and Pakistan on the list of areas that the university says poses a high risk of danger.
Undergrad students who were planning to enroll in programs in China will have the option to study abroad elsewhere or attend classes in Austin, UT officials said.
“Our top priority is to support the health, safety, and security of our community and remain vigilant during this evolving health crisis,” the university said in a statement. “We are prepared to make adjustments to our approach as circumstances warrant and are hopeful that conditions will improve for our activities to resume in China.”
Texas A&M University also decided Tuesday to suspend all undergraduate travel to China and to review all graduate and employee travel on a case-by-case basis. A Texas A&M graduate student who had fallen ill after traveling from Wuhan, China, was tested last week for the coronavirus, and was found not to have it.
In China, thousands of people infected with the new virus have fallen ill and 132 have died, The Associated Press reported. The first cases appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief told reporters on Wednesday that China was taking “extraordinary measures in the face of an extraordinary challenge” posed by the outbreak, The AP reported.
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