University Canada West, located in downtown Vancouver, on the 600 block of West Pender, and moved classes online, due to a presumptive case of COVID-19.听
鈥淟ast night, we received word that one of our students may have been on campus and had been exposed to a relative who had come in from overseas,鈥� said UCW vice president, Cyndi Banks, at press conference held at the independent university Thursday afternoon. 鈥淲e immediately started implementing our contingency plan.鈥�
Due to concerns over confidentiality, UCW declined to release the name of the student or the country that the relative was visiting from, but did reveal that the relative has a confirmed case of COVID-19.
All 2,000 UCW students have been instructed to stay at home, and the university will be closed for the duration of the weekend. Anyone who was in class with the potentially infected student has been told to isolate themselves for two weeks, to ensure they have not contracted the virus.
鈥淥ur main concern is the safety of our students and employees, so we鈥檝e shut the university down for a few days for a deep clean, from the bottom to the top,鈥� said Banks. 鈥淲e鈥檒l continue talking to the health authority and take guidance from them. We expect to be able to open our campus again on Monday morning.鈥�
COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan City in China on Dec. 31, 2019. Since then, the virus has spread across the globe, infecting 90,000 people and claiming more than 3,000 lives.听
As of posting this story, British Columbia of COVID-19. The Public Health Agency of Canada is closely monitoring what they refer to as a 鈥渞apidly evolving situation鈥� and are urging those experiencing flu-like symptoms to stay at home.
The UCW press conference was held in the lobby of the London Building, which houses the university. When asked by a concerned member of the press if the lobby had been cleaned yet, Banks replied, 鈥淣o. It has not.鈥�
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