Amid the growing worldwide concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak, Tulane University is keeping an eye on new developments while also trying to put forth a plan for the university and for their students.

Recently, Tulane University sent a campus-wide email to students and faculty alerting them about the potential dangers of the coronavirus and safety precautions they can take to remain healthy. Scott Tims, assistant vice president of campus health at Tulane University, who is coordinating the university’s response to the coronavirus, said that Tulane makes sure to communicate with their community anytime there might be a potentially serious illness to prepare them for what their response might look like.

“We developed that communication in response to what we were seeing happening nationally around the coronavirus to limit any fears or concerns [at Tulane],” said Tims.

Since Tulane University sent the email, however, the coronavirus outbreak has only worsened. The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus as a global health emergency and as of Feb. 22, there are 77,700 total cases of people infected with coronavirus with a death toll of 2,300 and there have been numerous travel restrictions put in place.

The email sent to the Tulane community also mentioned that if any of their Chinese students are feeling stressed during this time that they should get in touch with one of the university’s counselors. Tulane has a large international student population, especially from China and Asia, and Tims said that the university wanted to be supportive of that international community and address any concerns that they might have.

“Our concerns for our international students right now are really just helping them manage the stress and anxiety about their family members who are still in China who might be impacted by [the coronavirus] and also not being able to get information to them,” said Tims.

Jennifer Liu, a Tulane graduate student from Beijing who has been in New Orleans since last summer, said that while she is feeling okay about the situation, her family back in China has had to adapt to the outbreak crisis.

“No one expected it to be so serious, so at the beginning of January no one noticed it at all but currently, most of the people just stay at home and there’s no school,” said Liu, “If they go out, they have to wear the mask and use alcohol to wash their hands.”

To help any Asian students who might have concerns,Tims said that Tulane held an information session where the university shared their response plan with students and students could ask any questions. One idea that kept coming up during the meeting, according to Tims, was that students wanted to send supplies and materials back to China for their family and how to provide the best form of support.

According to Tims, above all, the students really wanted to send some masks back to China. Tims also mentioned that even something simple like that could prove to be difficult.

“[Sending masks] is hard because it’s also hard to find masks right now because its cold and flu season is here,” said Tims, “There are also shipping interruptions so you might be able to find them but would you actually be able to get them there?”

Liu said that China could definitely use the masks but also joked about how much they really need them too.

“Everyday our government has a notice about how many masks they have,” said Liu, ““All the masks all over the world might be sold out soon because they’re all bought by Chinese people and sent to China.”

One other aspect about the coronavirus that Tulane is still trying to figure out is travel.

Tims said that there have been multiple instances of plans having to change. For instance, one student was scheduled to go study abroad in China but their program was cancelled. Tulane also have had scholars that were scheduled to come visit and do research but can’t fly into the United States due to travel restrictions. Tims also questioned what it would look like for Chinese students who are scheduled to go home and what would happen when they needed to come back.

“There have been a lot of lives, families and plans disrupted,” said Tims.

Liu, on the other hand, said that she doesn’t have any plans to return to China anytime soon but that she still doesn’t know what travelling will be like for her.

“I think I am able to go back but not be able to return because only five or six airports are open to Chinese people now,” said Liu.

For Tims and Tulane, the response against the coronavirus outbreak is mostly just a wait and see scenario.

“Right now we’re actually talking about what the future means for us if this continues,” said Tims, “right now there’s just a lot of uncertainty about what might happen in the future.”

Even though Tulane is still uncertain, Liu still has faith the situation will work itself out.

“[Tulane] will always back us up,” said Liu.