WPI, Holy Cross Switch To Online Classes Due To Coronavirus

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Holy Cross will stop holding in-person classes after the end of this week, both schools announced Wednesday. The schools will hold online classes in a bid to slow the growth of the coronavirus pandemic.

WPI will extend spring break until March 25 to prepare for the switch to online learning, and students are being asked to vacate campus. Holy Cross plans to start online classes on March 23, and students will need to move out by March 14.

"The university will remain open for faculty and staff but all undergraduate and graduate instruction will be moved to online platforms," WPI said in an update posted Wednesday. "Students residing on or near campus who are currently here should plan to go home. Students who reside on campus and are currently away should not return to campus," the statement continued.

"[B]ased on public health leaders’ counsel, we have made the difficult and painful decision to move classes to a distance learning format and to make significant changes to our normal operations," Holy Cross said in a bulletin. "Again, our overarching goal is to protect the health and safety of all our community members through minimizing exposure on campus.

Other schools in Massachusetts are already canceling spring classes. Harvard, MIT, Emerson, Smith, Amherst and others will go online-only after spring break next week.

Assumption College in Worcester shut down its Rome campus for the remainder of the spring semester. WPI and Framingham State University have both cancelled international travel until at least the summer.

At Clark University, ten students have remained off-campus after attending a conference in Washington, D.C., where two attendees tested positive for COVID-19. One of those Clark students did return to campus after the conference, but was ordered to leave and enter self-quarantine. Three more students who recently traveled to Italy are under self-quarantine.

Clark reiterated Wednesday that it is not requiring students to move off campus.

In Massachusetts alone, 95 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday afternoon. Six of those 95 have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control.

About the new coronavirus

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

The disease, which apparently originated in animals, is now transferring from person to person, although the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Its symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and many patients develop pneumonia. There is as yet no vaccine against COVID-19 it and no antiviral treatment.

According to the CDC, the best way of preventing the disease is to avoid close contact with people who are sick, to avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, to wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and to use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.

To avoid spreading any respiratory illness, the CDC recommends staying at home when you are sick, covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and throwing the tissue in the trash, cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.

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