Ohio State extends coronavirus travel restriction to South Korea

Lydia Weyrich
Wed, 26 Feb 2020 21:53:42 +0000
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Ohio State has updated its coronavirus travel restrictions to include South Korea. Credit: Amal Saeed | Photo Editor

Ohio State updated its coronavirus travel restrictions to include university-sponsored travel to South Korea through April 20, 2020, according to a universitywide email.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are 1,261 confirmed cases in South Korea and 12 deaths.

The email stated that student, faculty and staff personal travel to or from South Korea is required to be reported to the university through April 20.?

The spread of the virus, now officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, is still considered to be low risk in the United States, and there are no confirmed cases in Ohio, the email said.?

“We continue to monitor the guidelines and recommendations from local, state and federal health officials to protect the safety and well-being of our community,” the email reads.?

On Jan. 30, Ohio State announced that university-sponsored travel to mainland China was restricted until March 6; on Feb. 19, the university extended the travel restriction to April 20, according to universitywide emails from the respective dates.?

The university had previously extended the date of reporting personal travel to mainland China to April 20, according to the email.?

Any Ohio State student, staff or faculty member who returned from China after 5 p.m. Feb. 2 is not permitted to attend class or any university-sponsored event for 14 days after leaving China, according to the email.?

The email said students living in residence halls whose spring break plans may be affected by the travel restrictions have until Feb. 28 to contact University Housing if they are unable to make other housing arrangements.

According to the CDC website, the disease originated in Wuhan, China, and according to Johns Hopkins, there are 81,322 global cases as of Wednesday.?

Of the 81,322 cases, 78,064 are in China, and 2,615 of the Chinese cases have resulted in death, according to Johns Hopkins. There have been 2,715 total deaths — an increase from the 6,065 worldwide cases and 132 Chinese deaths since the Jan. 30 initial travel ban.