New York’s colleges, which enroll some 50,000 students from China, put out warnings to be on alert for symptoms of the deadly coronavirus as classes started up again for the spring semester.
Most of the Chinese students in the state are studying in the New York City area, according to the Institute for International Education’s most recent report.
New York University, which has upwards of 19,000 international students — more than any other college in the country — said it reached out to students from China’s Wuhan region, where the virus originated, and “provided them with information about the symptoms, instructed them to check in with us if they are experiencing those symptoms, reminded them about the availability of NYU health services.”
Spring semester classes begin Monday at NYU. A college spokesman would not say how many students come from the Wuhan area.
NYU also has a campus in Shanghai and said it recommended to students there not to travel to the Wuhan region. About half of the 1,300 students there are from China and half from the US and other countries.
The university said there were no identified cases of the virus “in the NYU community, including NYU Shanghai.”
Gov. Cuomo announced Friday that there were three suspect cases of the virus in New York although officials would not disclose where. City officials said there were no suspected cases in the Big Apple.
Columbia University, where there were 5,800 students from China last year, advised anyone with a fever, cough and shortness of breath who had been traveling, or in contact with someone who had visited the Asia-Pacific region, to seek medical attention.
A student advisory also went out at Cornell University, which had about 7,200 international students last year.