CUHK
News Centre

As the spread of the novel coronavirus has reached a critical stage, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been taking active steps to mitigate the increasingly alarming situation. These include the introduction of disease prevention and medical surveillance measures by the Committee on Health Promotion and Protection (CHPP), cancellation of exchange programmes and suspension of short-term academic activities in mainland China this term, as well as the extension of the lunar new year holiday and elevation of the Response Level against novel coronavirus to “Emergency”.

The CHPP has set up a steering committee to monitor and coordinate the University’s efforts and report directly to the Vice-Chancellor. To ensure the health and safety of our students, staff and faculty, further measures will be introduced.

(1) Students Health Declaration and Self-medical Surveillance

The University strongly advises students not to return to their hostels before 17 February. All students who return to hostels are required to declare their travel history in the previous 14 days by filling in the Health Declaration Form

(http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/health_declaration.pdf).

They are also required to monitor their health status for 14 days by filling in the Self-medical Surveillance Form

(http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/med_surveillance_self.pdf). The forms should be submitted to their respective hostel wardens.

Those who experience symptoms of fever, acute respiratory illness should contact hostel warden and seek medical help immediately.  Individual colleges may have additional requirements, which will be made known to their residents shortly.

As the novel coronavirus has an incubation period, and medical tests may take time, students who are suspected to have contracted the virus and those who have come into contact with them will have to be isolated until they have been cleared of infection by the medical authorities. This is necessary in the best interest of all our students who are staying on campus.

For enquiries, please contact the CHPP Information Co-coordinator at 3943 6436 (office hours) or email to healtheducation.uhs@cuhk.edu.hk. 

(2) Staff Health Declaration and Self-medical Surveillance

All staff who return to work are required to declare their travel history in the previous 14 days to their supervisors by filling in the Health Declaration Form

(http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/health_declaration.pdf).

They are also required to monitor their health status for 14 days by filling in the Self-medical Surveillance Form

(http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/med_surveillance_self.pdf). The forms should be submitted to their supervisors.

Pregnant staff or staff with long-term illnesses who require flexible work arrangements should contact their supervisors to discuss the arrangements. Those who experience symptoms of fever, acute respiratory illness should inform their supervisors and seek medical help immediately. For enquiries, please contact the CHPP Information Co-coordinator at 3943 6436 (office hours) or email to healtheducation.uhs@cuhk.edu.hk.

For the Faculty of Medicine, the staff and students who are involved in clinical work or studies at hospitals should refer to the Faculty announcement for further details.

(3) Class Arrangements

Teaching activities will resume on 17 February 2020. If the epidemic continues and classes cannot be resumed as scheduled, online teaching will be conducted as far as practicable and feasible without compromising learning outcomes. Students will be informed of detailed arrangements by their respective faculties / departments.

To cater for the needs of all students who are affected, online course add/drop for all courses offered in Term 2 will be provided once again on CUSIS from 17 February -23 February 2020. The arrangements for postgraduate programmes with a different term structure from the undergraduate degree programmes will be announced later by the Graduate School or the respective Faculties.

(4)    Large-scale Events and Conferences

The University advises all units/ offices to postpone or cancel large-scale events and conferences.

All offices on campus will resume operation on 29 January (Wednesday), while precautionary measures are in place to prevent infection. As the situation is evolving very quickly, the University will introduce further measures and keep the CUHK community informed on a regular basis. These are extraordinary circumstances, and the health of our students and staff is always our primary concern. The mitigation of the spread of the novel coronavirus will depend on the collective effort and cooperation of the entire CUHK community. While there may be inconveniences, all CUHK members are urged to take care of their personal health and look out for the well-being of those around us.