TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In response to reports that a student from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan is suspected to have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), the university has sent out a text message to over 500 students to stop attending class and begin taking online courses instead.

Early Tuesday morning (March 17), a netizen on the popular online forum PTT shared an emergency text message that they said was sent by a "public university in southern Taiwan" urging its students to stop attending classes effective immediately. In response to the post, NCKU said that it had sent the text message in the early morning to inform more than 500 students attending seven courses to stop attending their classes immediately, reported Newtalk.

The text also mentioned that the classes would be switched from synchronous face-to-face classes to asynchronous online learning classes. The students were asked to carry out self-health management, wear masks when going out, and regularly monitor their temperature.

The school said that it in order to protect students, it has raised the level of protection first. NCKU said that it will send information via SMS or e-mail at 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. The school said that it is taking these measures to prevent the possible expansion of the epidemic.

It added that it has submitted relevant information to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and that this will be made public at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.



Text message sent to students on Tuesday. (PTT screenshot)