The Coronavirus has recently been announced as a pandemic and has already found its way into many universities around the world. Over a hundred universities in North America have cancelled in-person classes to prevent the Coronavirus from spreading on campus, and have moved to online classes. The risk to our student population is higher, with over 40,000 students, many of whom have gone abroad during reading week. It has been shown that transmission is possible simply by breathing around someone with the virus, even if they are not displaying symptoms. With an incubation period of 5 days, clusters quickly form before symptoms begin to develop.

We are asking that in-person classes be cancelled, for concern of the health and well-being of the students at uOttawa. Action must be taken before the risk of Coronavirus at the university becomes too big. Although the federal government claims that the risk is low, they yesterday warned that up to 26 million Canadians could get Coronavirus. So even though the risk might be low now, experts confirm it will not stay this way. We must be proactive at stopping the spread of this virus, not only for our students, but for the city of Ottawa, our families, and most importantly our elders.