March 23, 2020
Summer education abroad programs canceled
K-State's Education Abroad is notifying all students and faculty who were directly involved in summer 2020 Education Abroad programs that those programs are canceled in accordance with the U.S. State Department's Level 4 — Do Not Travel Global Health Advisory.
The advisory states that U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for an immediate return to the United States unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period. Education Abroad has advised all spring 2020 Education Abroad students to return to the U.S as soon as possible.
All Education Abroad students should follow up with local health officials after returning home. Even if individuals do not have symptoms — i.e. fever, cough, difficulty breathing — there will be a required health screening and 14-day quarantine period, as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Riley County Health Department.
According to the CDC, "quarantine in general means the separation of a person or group of people reasonably believed to have been exposed to a communicable disease but not yet symptomatic, from others who have not been so exposed, to prevent the possible spread of the communicable disease."
This process is currently being used throughout the country to restrict the possible transmission of COVID-19 disease.