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HALIFAX, N.S. —

The coronavirus outbreak has forced officials to cancel school spring break trips to international destinations.

“Nova Scotia's regional centres for education collectively decided to cancel all school organized student trips to international destinations until April 30,” said a news release from the Education Department.

“This includes all school organized trips to international destinations scheduled for March Break.”

Education Minister Zach Churchill said it was a difficult call.

"We decided to take a lowrisk approach at this point in time, considering the risk of Covid-19 and it's a decision that I fully support," Churchill said.

"It's in the best interest of students and the public. … They made the right call here."

The decision affects 1,200 students. Some of the planned destinations included highrisk areas.

Churchill said ultimately it was too much of a risk to have students landing at international airports and mixing with potential coronavirus carriers.

He said the almost twomonth ban on student trips allows the centres and his department to monitor the spread of coronavirus.

“It's temporary because we don't know what's going to happen in the next couple of months."

He said the ban could be extended depending on how serious the coronavirus threat becomes.

Churchill said the decision came from centres of education to ensure parents would be covered under some travel insurance agreements. Those agreements specifically required that trip cancellations had to come specifically from the centres for parents to get their money back.

Churchill said his department would do its “very best” to make sure parents with travel insurance get coverage.

The minister also said he's looking into what can be done for those with no protection. He said regional centres are working with travel companies and “evaluating things like vouchers.”

"We're doing whatever we can to ensure parents recoup those costs.”