Update on travel to Wuhan City and Coronavirus outbreak

29/01/20 Update on travel to Wuhan City and Coronavirus outbreak

Travelling to China

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has now advised against all travel to Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China.

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China (not including Hong Kong and Macao). The Chinese government continue to impose further restrictions on movement within China in response to the coronavirus outbreak. It may become harder over the coming weeks for those who wish to leave China to do so. If you feel that you may want to leave China soon, you should consider making plans to do so before any further restrictions may be imposed.

Advice from the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care for travellers from Wuhan

If you have returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days:

• stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with other flu
• contact NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the city

Please follow this advice even if you do not have symptoms of the virus.

If you develop a fever, difficulty breathing or a cough, you should continue to follow the advice above. Please do not leave your home until you been given advice by a doctor or health advisor.

What this means in practice

We are asking people to take simple, common-sense steps to avoid close contact with other people as much as possible, like they would with other flu viruses.

This means remaining at home for 14 days after arriving from Wuhan and not going to work, school or public areas.

Where possible, you should avoid having visitors to your home, but it’s ok for friends, family or delivery drivers to drop off food.

Transport

You should not use public transport or taxis until 14 days after your return from Wuhan.

Getting food and medicine

We recommend that you stay at home for 14 days after arriving from Wuhan, and avoid public places. Where possible, contact a friend, family member or delivery services to carry out errands on your behalf.

Taking children to school

We recommend that you stay at home for 14 days after arriving from Wuhan, and avoid public places. Where possible, contact a friend or family member to take your children to school.

Why the advice has changed

This is an evolving situation and the advice has changed based on emerging information from China about the number of cases and spread of the infection from person to person.

While the risk to the UK population remains low, this is a highly precautionary measure to limit the potential spread of infection..

If you develop symptoms

If you develop a fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat or difficulty breathing, you should continue to follow the advice above. Please do not leave your home until you been given advice by a clinician.

Support for staff and students

We are also particularly mindful of those members of our community who have family and friends in the area who may be very concerned.  If you would like someone to talk to you can access advice, support and guidance from the following areas:

• speaking with your line manager.
• Faith@CampusLife Listening Service
  Email: campuslife@swansea.ac.uk

We will issue further updates as and when the situation changes.

Student Partnership and Engagement Manager Wednesday January 29th, 2020

Posted In: Campus News, Messages, Travel