MU-related travel to San Antonio was canceled Monday evening after the Texas city declared a public health emergency over the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.
In an email Tuesday morning to deans and department chairs, Provost Latha Ramchand took particular note of faculty and students who planned to attend the Associated Writing Programs conference from Wednesday through Saturday there.
According to CNBC: The health emergency followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's release of a woman who had tested positive for the virus. The woman was among those in federal quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. The woman — who tested negative twice before her release — visited a mall. Later, the CDC found "a weakly positive confirmation of the virus that causes COVID-19," and the woman was taken to the Texas Center for Infectious Disease.
Ramchand said Chancellor Alexander Cartwright made the decision with input from MU Faculty Council chair Clark Peters, English Department chair Alex Socarides and College of Arts & Science Dean Pat Okker.
"On the one hand this may be overkill," Ramchand wrote. "On the other, it seems irresponsible on our part to not halt such travel, knowing that our students could potentially be exposed, given the declaration of a health emergency in San Antonio."
Late last week, spring and summer study-abroad programs to Italy and South Korea were canceled, affecting 23 students in Italy and "fewer than 10" in South Korea — a number MU will not make more specific because of student privacy laws.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 108 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the U.S., according to a Johns Hopkins database tracking the virus worldwide. The database indicated that one person in San Antonio had the virus.
The CDC map of cases reporting COVID-19 cases showed none in Texas on Tuesday afternoon. The data does not include people who returned to the U.S. via State Department-chartered flights.
No cases were reported in Missouri as of Tuesday afternoon.