Coronavirus and universities.

[chiselled]

Any university parents with further and better particulars about the Coronavirus situation in university cities? Only York affected so far, but would expect other places to have cases emerging soon.

[Wolfff]

No on DD's Uni's website it just said they were following the advice of Public Health England. I think they do take these things seriously. A young man at the Uni died of a strain of Meningitis a couple of years back and they set up vaccination stations in the grounds.

[nixkix]

DS's university have a lot of students from China and do a graduation ceremony there in April, so far they are going ahead with it unless the government advice changes.

[BubblesBuddy]

Am I wrong in thinking that most Chinese students have been back here for a while? When did term start? I’m surprised a student was in a hotel as well. I wonder why? If the Chinese students have been back here for 2 weeks plus then I’m not sure I would be expecting a large outbreak amongst the student population. However I’m sure everyone is vigilant.

I went shopping to Bicester Village yesterday and found some shop assistants wearing face masks. Together with the vast majority of Chinese visitors. Medical advice on a radio programme said face masks were of no use regarding this virus and it felt very strange and pessimistic. I hope the university students don’t go down the same route.

[AlexaShutUp]

Am I wrong in thinking that most Chinese students have been back here for a while? When did term start? I’m surprised a student was in a hotel as well. I wonder why? If the Chinese students have been back here for 2 weeks plus then I’m not sure I would be expecting a large outbreak amongst the student population. However I’m sure everyone is vigilant.

Those on degree programmes will have been back for a while, in time for the start of term. However, there will be a significant number of others arriving now and in the next few months for pre-sessional English courses - that's possibly where the biggest risk lies.

Of course, if they stop coming, that will bring other risks - most of our universities would collapse without Chinese student fees.

It will all need to be managed very carefully.

[summervines]

DD's university have been back nearly three weeks so I think they would be seeing symptoms now from students who had been infected.

[Stillabitemo]

University of Liverpool has cancelled their year in China programme effective immediately

[MostIneptThatEverStepped]

I read an article this week that suggested a lot of parents might have been visiting their uni student offspring for New Year, as it fell during term time.

I work in a very big uni. We get almost daily updates on the situation and current advice.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Cambridge hosted several students from Wuhan in January. As statistics suggested would probably be the case, none of the students were infected. I feel very sorry for them having to fly back home to a lockdown though and I hope they are ok.

Other than that, the university sent an email to students with the PHE advice and it's university life as usual.

[TheQueensCousin]

I'm in York and there's a lot of Chinese students here. I've been into the city centre today and many of the Chinese were wearing masks. DS's uni also has lots of Chinese students but nothing has been flagged yet.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I really feel for them, they must be feeling unfairly stigmatised to a certain extent

[ErrolTheDragon]

Medical advice on a radio programme said face masks were of no use regarding this virus

I think it's recognised that the main value of simple masks (ones which don't seal and don't have one-way valves) is that it deters you from putting your fingers in or near your mouth and nose. I wonder if wearing gloves (or better yet, mittens) would have a similar effect?

[ragged]

Lots of people in China are ill & some have died & no one knows how long the outbreak will take to finish. Their economy is being damaged & lives very disrupted. I have a lot of sympathy with Chinese residents right now.

[summervines]

I'm in York and there's a lot of Chinese students here.

York is where there is a confirmed case isn't it?

[TheQueensCousin]

Two cases @summervines. Tbh if they've used public transport, which we do, including the numbers 66, 7 or 415 buses then they could have come into contact with numerous people. We're not being told too much except risk is low.

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

Yes, York is where the confirmed case is. DD is there for uni and has had info from the uni about it being something that is being monitored. We are just waiting to hear how it develops.

[GCAcademic]

My university has prohibited anyone from travelling to China on university business (including student exchanges and field trips). However, they cannot stop students from travelling to and from China on a personal basis. We have had students returning to campus from Hubei province and the university's view, which it stated very firmly in the face of protests from some students, is that they cannot be prevented from returning to their accommodation if they have got through immigration / screening at the airport (though some universities, apparently, are taking a different view and quarantining such students). It's actually the Chinese students who have been most up in arms about their compatriots returning as they are worried that this will exacerbate the sadly obvious xenophobia currently being displayed towards them.

Some universities have only gone back quite recently, by the way. DH works somewhere that has semesters, and teaching only resumed last Monday.

[errorofjudgement]

DD is on a gap year and has a part time job at our local university. It’s highly ranked and has a lot of overseas students. Last week was Reading week, no lectures, so many students went home including internationals.

So far DD has had no advice or information despite the fact she will be serving food to students, and clearing away dirty plates & used crockery afterwards.

[BubblesBuddy]

The BBC says one person with the virus in York is a student but the other person isn’t although they are related. It also says the student hadn’t been on campus at the university prior to or after getting the virus.

It’s also confirmed a regular face mask won’t help prevent the virus spreading. Must be a great money maker for the mask manufacturers though.

[Kuponut]

We've had a couple of emails from uni (recruit heavily from China) basically saying "don't panic"... that was about the gist of it.

I'm pretty resigned it'll break out on most campuses eventually - between being on campus, being placed in a nursery and commuting on crammed trains... I'm pretty much buggered!

[littlealexhorne]

My university has told students who've recently been to China to quarantine themselves for two weeks

[ShanghaiDiva]

@BubblesBuddy
It is now compulsory to wear a mask in public in many cities in China, including mine, and you cannot enter a supermarket, for example, without wearing one. It is also common to wear a mask in China if you have a cold and some people in customer facing roles wear them all the time. Consequently, many Chinese who are overseas at the moment are wearing masks.
Personal hygiene standards, ime as a China resident, are lower here than western countries and I am grateful that instead of sneezing all over me the mask contains most of the ‘fallout’.
Masks also tend to reduce the number of times people touch their faces which is also a positive.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Also re masks - the evidence is now emerging that many of the deaths have been caused by secondary infections after the virus has impaired the protection of the lungs. So anything which impedes transmission of any infection is presumably helpful.