As University of Florida braces for coronavirus, at least one person in Alachua County is being monitored by health officials with tests results pending.

The University of Florida’s top academic administrator announced late Monday afternoon that faculty should move their in-person classes online as soon as possible.

While it’s not yet a requirement, “there is a strong probability that it will become a requirement before the end of the spring semester,” so instructors are encouraged to make the move now, the memo read.

The move is a response to the coronavirus outbreak. Two people in Florida have died from the illness.

At least one person in Alachua County is being monitored for COVID-19, with test results pending, according to Paul Myers, the county’s director for the state health department.

Read more: FSU exploring distance learning options in event of coronavirus-related shutdown of campus

Myers said no presumptive positive test results have been received. He declined to say how many people are being monitored or where they are staying, at a hospital or at home. Other coronavirus tests in Alachua County have been negative, Myers said, but he declined to say how many people have been tested.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, as of late Monday afternoon, there have been 423 confirmed cases of the illness in the U.S. and 19 deaths. Thirty-five states, including the District of Columbia, have reported cases of the coronavirus, also called COVID-19.

Glover’s email Monday comes just after UF officials announced Friday that anyone who had been to one of five coronavirus-hotspot countries within the last 14 days — China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran — would be temporarily barred from the University of Florida campus.

The ban applies to students, faculty, staff and campus visitors. Anyone affected would be allowed back on campus after a 14-day self-quarantine and a clean bill of health.

UF spokesman Steve Orlando said officials are monitoring the spread of coronavirus closely and circumstances are fluid.

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The University of Washington on Friday became the first large university to cancel in-person classes, and students there will do coursework and take exams remotely until their semester ends March 20.

Seattle has been one of the U.S. locations hardest hit by the coronavirus. Of the 14 deaths in the U.S. attributed to the illness, most have been in that region.

Since then, Stanford University and three New York universities, including Columbia, Hofstra and Yeshiva, began canceling in-person classes, according to the New York Times.

Princeton University, the Times’ report said, will require all lectures and seminars to be virtual starting March 23 and said large campus gatherings would be curtailed.

Some 55,000 students returned to Gainesville’s campus Monday following spring break, although some of those students already take all of their courses online.

UF’s instructors were told to continue following their normal syllabus, assignment and exam schedules, and to keep office hours.

The summer semesters are still expected to be held, as usual, but the memo noted that those schedules could also change.

This story originally published to heraldtribune.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the new Gannett Media network.