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Top university CANCELS exams and delays the start of the year’s first semester

Top university CANCELS exams and delays the start of the year’s first semester over coronavirus fears

  • Monash University pushed back exams and the start date by a week till March 9 
  • Students ordered to stay home if they visited China due to coronavirus outbreak
  • The university announced the ‘difficult decision’ on Facebook on Friday evening 
  • Coronavirus began in China and spread to over 6,000 people in other countries 

By Sahar Mourad For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

Monash University has pushed back exams and the start date of the first semester over fears regarding the coronavirus outbreak.  

The Melbourne university announced the new starting date for classes in 2020 will be March 9, and ordered students to stay home for 14 days if they spent any time in China. 

They posted a statement to Facebook on Friday announcing the ‘difficult decision’ following the global health emergency. 

Monash University has pushed back exams and the start date of the semester over fears of the coronavirus outbreak (Clayton Campus)

The university took to their Facebook page and announced the 'difficult decisions'

The university took to their Facebook page and announced the ‘difficult decisions’

‘We’ve had to make some difficult decisions for the safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and the wider community due to the novel coronavirus,’ they wrote. 

‘Among the difficult decisions made, all exams scheduled for February and the commencement of semester one have been postponed.

‘We’re continuing to monitor the rapidly evolving novel coronavirus situation and acting accordingly with the advice from the Department of Human Services.’

The first week of semester will see classes live streamed and students are expected to participate before face-to-face teaching resumes the following week.

Postponed exams have also been moved to March 9 – 13, providing enough time for any students who were in isolation. 

People wearing face masks walk by Flinders Street Station after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne on January 29

People wearing face masks walk by Flinders Street Station after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne on January 29

So far, the coronavirus that began in China last month has spread to over 6,000 people in more than a dozen countries.

Its source hasn’t been officially identified, but most evidence points to animals sold at a seafood market in Wuhan.

The outbreak in mainland China is now bigger than the 2003 SARS epidemic, when 5,327 cases of the killer virus were confirmed.

However, it is still behind the total toll of the outbreak, which infected 8,000 people.

In New South Wales, coronavirus testing is ramping up as authorities await lab results for 16 new possible cases referred for investigation.

Two people confirmed to be infected in NSW have improved significantly and could soon be released from hospital isolation, Dr Chant added.

There have been more than 40 people tested for the infection in NSW.

There are now seven confirmed cases of the virus in Australia, including four in NSW, two in Victoria and one in Queensland.

Australians trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan due to the viral outbreak will be evacuated to Christmas Island.

AUSTRALIANS WITH THE CORONAVIRUS

NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 

January 25

  • Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
  • Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
  • They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition.

January 27 

  • A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
  • The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
  • She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital.

VICTORIA: 3

January 25

  • A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
  • The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
  • He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne’s east.

January 29

  • A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
  • He became unwell on January 23 – two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. 
  •  The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home.

January 30

  • A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus. 
  •  She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
  • She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital. 

QUEENSLAND: 2

January 29

  • Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.
  • He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.

January 30

  • A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.

CHINA: 2

January 30

  • Two Australians have been confirmed as having the virus in Wuhan itself. Australia has raised the travel alert level to ‘do not travel’ for the city of Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and for the entire Hubei province.
  • Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern.

 

 

 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk



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