Coronavirus: ‘Avoid foreign trips, international conferences’

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 2

In the wake of the deadly COVID-19 (coronavirus), the Health Department has ‘advised’ the educational institutions to postpone all international conferences and exchange programmes.

In fact, all universities and schools across the state have already been directed to postpone/cancel any foreign travel to virus-affected countries and vice-versa. Foreign delegates from China and Japan, who were scheduled to visit Punjabi University on March 19 for a two-day conference, have reportedly been denied participation.Vice-Chancellor BS Ghuman said they would follow the advisory.

Besides, the Health Department has advised educational institutions to avoid non-essential travel to 12 countries — China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Iran, Italy, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea.

Meanwhile, an official of the Health Department said four professors, who were supposed to visit Patiala, had to postpone their trip. They were coming from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Notably, Patiala is an education hub of the state and has four major universities —Chitkara University, Thapar University, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law and Punjabi University.

Dr Yuvraj Narang, nodal officer, said educational institutions have already been put on alert. “Educational institutions have been directed to avoid international conferences until October,” he said .