Coronavirus: Purdue makes plans in case quarantine, online courses are necessary

WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue President Mitch Daniels said Monday that the university is making plans in case students need to be quarantined if the coronavirus makes it to the West Lafayette campus.

“It is our hope that we are preparing for many eventualities that will never occur,” Daniels and Purdue Provost Jay Akridge wrote to the campus community, in a letter sent to students, staff and families Monday evening.

“But we are discussing, planning and taking all necessary actions to protect the safety of our faculty, staff, students and visitors against possible threats, likely or unlikely,” Daniels and Akridge wrote.

The letter came as deadly cases of the coronavirus, labeled as COVID-19, were reported in the United States. Purdue already had restricted travel, first to China – where  Johns Hopkins University reported more than 2,900 of the 3,048 coronavirus had occurred, as of Monday – and then to Japan, Iran, Italy and South Korea.

On Monday, Daniels and Akridge said the university “will address this problem in layers,” noting that there have been no reports of coronavirus on campus.

► As precautions, they wrote that the travel restrictions would expand. They said, “Effective immediately, we will not extend invitations to or host visitors from those countries at our Purdue West Lafayette, Purdue Northwest or Purdue Fort Wayne campuses or at our research parks.”

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► For containment: “Should this virus appear on campus or should there be a potential of the problem on or near campus, we have identified steps for assessment and containment, including identification of spaces for quarantine and best practices for attending to those who are in quarantine and those with whom they have interacted.”

► Daniels and Akridge wrote that it was “very unlikely that the problem will progress to the point of needing to impose ‘social distancing’ and pause face-to-face instruction as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak on campus.” But they wrote that the university was working on a plan to use Purdue Online to “allow us to continue to deliver courses.”

“Faculty and staff should begin to consider how, through Purdue learning management systems or other means, they would deliver classes and continue communications with students to keep their educational programs on track,” they wrote.

Daniels and Akridge also said they were asking university departments to come up with a plan to identify “essential personnel and essential operations.”

FOR MORE: Purdue set up a site to answer frequently asked questions on the topic. To read it, go to: www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2020/Q1/need-to-know-info-about-covid-2019.html

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.