Coronavirus: Columbia University, New York schools suspend classes as cases cross 100 in state

Schools and colleges in the New York state have announced that they are suspending classes, as the number of coronavirus cases jumped to more than 100 and a state of emergency has been declared over the novel Coronavirus outbreak. The number of coronavirus cases in the New York state jumped on Sunday to 106, forcing the closure of classes at Columbia University and other schools across the state.

As the Coronavirus cases continue to multiply across the US, institutions were forced to take unprecedented steps to contain the spread of the virus that has infected more than 100,000 people across the world and claimed over 3,000 lives. These numbers were increasing manifold with each passing day.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday declared a state of emergency to help New York more quickly and effectively contain the spread of the virus.

The state of emergency will allow expedited procurement of cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, and other essential resources, allow qualified professionals other than doctors and nurses to conduct testing, expedite procurement of testing supplies and equipment, expedite personnel onboarding and leasing of lab space, allow medical personnel to transport patients to quarantine locations other than just hospitals and provide clear basis for price gouging and enforcement investigation.

In an unprecedented measure, Columbia University announced that it is suspending classes on Monday and Tuesday after a member of the Columbia community was quarantined as a result of exposure to the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

"This suspension of activities will allow us to prepare to shift to remote classes for the remainder of the week. I want to emphasize that the individual who has been quarantined has not been diagnosed at this point with the virus," Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement.

Bollinger added that the decision to suspend classes does not mean that the University is shutting down.

"All non-classroom activities, including research, will continue in accordance with the new travel and events restrictions announced recently. At this point, just to restate what is important to know, we do not have a confirmed case of the virus on campus. This action is intended to prevent the virus from spreading.”

The school district of Scarsdale, a New York City suburb in Westchester County, also announced it is closing all district schools from March 9-18 after a faculty member at the Middle School tested positive for COVID-19.

"The District is working with the Department of Health (DoH) to discuss the full extent of precautions that we should be taking. We have spoken with the Westchester County Health Commissioner this evening, and she recommended that we close our schools in an abundance of caution and take additional remedial measures as outlined below," the school district said, adding that the measure is being taken "for continued cleaning, progress monitoring, and social-distancing."

The school district said the impacted faculty member is "exhibiting mild illness." During a news conference on Sunday, Cuomo strongly criticized the Trump administration over its handling of the Coronavirus crisis, saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been slow in responding to the epidemic and has also been slow in allowing states to do more testing.

Cuomo said there were 16 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing the total number in New York state to 106. "I would get nervous if the number didn’t go up,” he said adding that “the more tests we run, the better."

Cuomo said that labs in the state were still waiting for approval to begin testing for the virus. Speaking at the Northwell Health Labs at the Center for Advanced Medicine, a private laboratory in Long Island, he said the CDC has not authorized the use of Northwell lab, “which is just outrageous and ludicrous.

"CDC, wake up, let the states test, let private labs test, let’s increase as quickly as possible our testing capacity so we can identify the positive people. Not to be using this laboratory, not to be using the other private labs around the state makes no sense whatsoever,” he said.

The virus has now spread to nearly 96 countries, with nearly 109,800 cases of infection and about 3,825 deaths. As the global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed 100,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that “as we mark this sombre moment” it is important to remind all countries and communities “that the spread of this virus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities.”

The WHO and leading medical experts are encouraging people to stay at home if they are sick and follow “common sense” measures like washing hands frequently and use of hand sanitizers.

Several multi-national corporations like Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google were encouraging employees in the Seattle area to work from home due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in Washington State.

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