NYU, Duke Delay Classes at China Campuses Amid Virus Outbreak

(Bloomberg) -- Duke Kunshan University, a joint U.S.-China institution, and New York University’s Shanghai campus have delayed the resumption of classes after a spring break until early February in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Duke said on Saturday that classes are postponed until Feb. 17, access to the campus in China’s Jiangsu province is restricted and students who remained during spring break must stay on campus or make alternative arrangements.

“The university is providing financial support to international and Chinese students who wish to return home until classes restart,” according to a statement on the campus website.

A spokesman for NYU said municipal authorities in Shanghai asked universities to put new public health protocols in place as the Chinese New Year holiday period began.

“NYU Shanghai will delay its start of the spring semester by one week, so as to facilitate a smooth return of students,” John Beckman, an NYU spokesman, said in a statement. Spring classes for NYU Shanghai are set to resume Feb. 10.

Duke Kunshan said students who went home for spring break were told to stay there, while those who went to a third destination were advised to stay where they are or return home.

Duke Kunshan -- a partnership between Duke University and China’s Wuhan University that opened five years ago -- had intensified cleaning on the campus, added hand sanitizer dispensers and distributed surgical masks. The campus is between Shanghai and Suzhou and had about 600 undergraduate students last fall.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net;Denise Pellegrini in New York at dpellegrini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Ian Fisher

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