Fairfield, SHU Call Students Home From Italy Due To Coronavirus

FAIRFIELD, CT — As the new coronavirus spreads across the world and across the nation of Italy, more than 100 students at Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities are returning home.

Each of the 142 affected Fairfield University juniors — 38 of whom are visiting students from other schools — are expected to travel back to the U.S. by the weekend, leaving Italy part-way through a study abroad program based at Florence University of the Arts.

"We obviously didn't take the decision lightly," said Jenn Anderson, Fairfield University's vice president of marketing and communications.

As of Thursday, more than 600 cases of the virus had been confirmed in Italy and 17 people in the country had died of the new coronavirus, also called COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.

Anderson said Fairfield University officials considered the extent to which the virus has spread in making their decision, as well as the possibility that students could lose academic credit if they were put in a position where they had to return home from the program later in the semester.

The students will return to campus March 16, after Fairfield University's spring break, and will be able to stay on pace academically through online and hybrid course offerings, according to Anderson.

"At the end of the day keeping them on track towards graduation is an important step," Anderson said.

At Sacred Heart, 17 students have been asked to return to the U.S. by Saturday from a study abroad program at John Cabot University in Rome, according to a message posted online from university President John J. Petillo. The students have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days and will have a choice to continue their coursework with John Cabot either from home or on campus in Fairfield.

Sacred Heart also canceled a spring break choir trip to Rome.

More than 80,000 people have been infected and over 2,800 people have died worldwide from COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. It is spreading so quickly overseas that infectious disease experts and scientists warn there may be no way to contain it. So far, 59 cases have been identified in the United States.

There is some evidence COVID-19 could be airborne, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, warned Tuesday that the spread of the coronavirus across the U.S. is inevitable.

Connecticut has had coronavirus scares, with a Wesleyan student, a student at St. Bernard School in Uncasville and a high school student visiting Yale University from China all showing signs of the virus, but eventually being cleared.

COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that's a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past. The symptoms of the new coronavirus are similar to seasonal influenza, according to Johns Hopkins. Both are infectious respiratory illnesses, but they're caused by different viruses.

Both cause fever, cough, body aches and fatigue, and can result in pneumonia. Both illnesses can sometimes cause vomiting and diarrhea. Both can be spread from person to person by sneezing, coughing or talking.

Common good-health practices such as frequent hand-washing, covering coughs and staying home from work or school during the course of the illness can help control the spread of both illnesses.

Neither responds to antibiotic treatment, but both may be treated by addressing symptoms, such as reducing fever. Both illnesses can be severe enough to require hospitalization.

There is no vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus, as there is against influenza. Scientists around the world are racing to find a vaccine for the new coronavirus, although none currently exists and federal health officials cautioned that a vaccine is not expected in the immediate future.