Travel to China suspended

UTRGV has suspended all university related travels to China as of Jan. 31 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak being declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to an email sent to the university community.

As reported by The Rider newspaper on Feb. 3, Dr. Emilie Prot, regional medical director for the Texas Department of State Health Services, explained the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is part of a larger family that usually originates from animals.

The novel coronavirus was first detected Dec. 31, 2019, in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and there have been more than 28,000 confirmed cases as of last Thursday, according to WHO.

Alan Earhart, director of International Programs and Partnership at UTRGV, said visits to China were planned for two study abroad trips during the summer. Now, those trips will not include China. Instead they are going to South Korea and Taiwan.

“Taiwan has, I think, 10 reported cases right now,” Earhart said. “So, it really hasn’t affected Taiwan. And you can get direct flights to Taiwan, so they don’t need to fly through China. And then the other professor is going to go to South Korea and Japan. So, we’ve figured that out. So, really at this point, it’s not going to affect any study abroad students unless they really had their hearts set on going to China.”

Earhart said there are about 15 to 20 students, as of now, who are planning to attend the study abroad trips. Students have not been billed yet, “so there was no money to be refunded.”

The U.S. State Department has a Level 4 do not travel advisory to China and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a Level 3 avoid nonessential travel, according to the email.

“Our main concern is the health, safety, and security of our UTRGV community,” the email states. “We will continue to monitor the situation and are hopeful conditions will improve so we can resume travel to China.”

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Pablo Mendez said as the situation improves, UTRGV will be able to reassess the travel suspension to China to make sure it is safe for the campus community to travel again.

“We don’t want to send someone out there and then have someone stuck, you know. At first it was the province of Wuhan that was under a strict quarantine,” Mendez said. “So, what do we do if we have, let’s say, a UTRGV student that was out during the study abroad or a professor, you know, and they got stuck behind the quarantine. … We don’t want our campus community to fall to that kind of situation.”

For more information on how travel restrictions work, visit www.utrgv.edu/oge/explore-the-world/i-o-c/index.htm.