Coronavirus: 300 NY Students Studying Abroad Ordered Home

ALBANY, NY — Students at SUNY and CUNY schools who are studying abroad in China, Iran, Italy, Japan or South Korea, where coronavirus outbreaks are most widespread, will be brought back to New York. They will be quarantined for 14 days, state officials said Wednesday morning.

The students will be flown on charter planes into Stewart Airport in Orange County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news briefing in Albany.

SUNY is currently arranging chartered flights from South Korea, Italy and Japan to New York Stewart International Airport in the coming days. Upon arrival and in accordance with DOH guidelines, local and state health representatives will screen passengers and SUNY will arrange transportation to designated SUNY campus dormitories to begin 14-day quarantines.

SUNY and CUNY will then work closely with campuses, the DOH, and local health departments to provide medical monitoring, remote course study, and various resources to help the students during the quarantine period.

Out of an abundance of caution, SUNY and CUNY have cancelled campus-sponsored travel outside of the United States to affected countries for the spring semester. SUNY and CUNY will continue to review CDC guidance and work closely with DOH to make additional determinations on continuing or cancelling upcoming travel at all other campus sponsored international locations.

"We will provide students with financial and academic resources and work to minimize any disruption today's action may cause, while we work aggressively with all our partners at the local, state and federal level to protect our entire campus communities," SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson said.

About 300 students will be brought back. They'll be quarantined in dormitories where there is excess capacity, state officials said. Those dorms identified so far are on Long Island, in Western New York and in the Utica-Rome area.

Among them will be two Purchase College students, one of whom is studying in Italy and the other in South Korea, said Purchase spokeswoman Betsy Aldridge. They are enrolled in SUNY abroad programs connected to Binghamton and Stony Brook, she said. "None of our faculty-led programs are affected."

Cuomo made the announcement before heading to Westchester County to meet with local officials about the outbreak there. The wife and two children of the New Rochelle attorney in stable condition with coronavirus, plus the neighbor who drove him to the hospital, have all tested positive, the governor said. SEE: 6 Now Confirmed With Coronavirus In NY.

That triples the number of confirmed cases in the state.

"We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus, but we have a pandemic caused by fear," Cuomo said.

"The more you test the more people you will find who test positive," he said. Most will have mild cases. "The people we are most concerned about are senior citizens, people with immune compromise situations. nursing home settings, senior care settings."

What's happened so far in New York bears that out, he said.

"The 34-year-old health care worker is home and getting better," Cuomo said. "The 50-year-old attorney had an underlying respiratory illness. He is in the category of people we worry about."