In December 2019, the city of Wuhan in China saw the outbreak of new coronavirus cases, and since then the number of confirmed cases has been increasing not only in China but also in Japan and other countries. On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus to be a public health emergency of international concern. Naturally, HU is very concerned about the situation as it has about 16,000 students, including international students, and about 3,500 faculty and administrative members.

I have been informed that one HU student, who was on an academic exchange program at the local university in Wuhan, has already returned to Japan.

In response to the recent development of the outbreak, the Health Service Center at HU has been updating all the students, including the international students from China, and the faculty and administrative members with the information regarding how to deal with the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus including the new viral pneumonia, through its on-campus portal site (Iroha & Momiji). So far, the Center has issued seven notices regarding coronavirus between 15th January and today (i.e. 31st January). The University intends to release more updates on the new coronavirus as needed. Meanwhile, notices on the coronavirus are also being put up on each campus of HU to keep all the parties informed.

Briefing sessions regarding how to prevent the spread of this outbreak are to be held three times on the following dates: 31st January (today), 3rd February and 7th February. These sessions are intended for the students, faculty, and administrative members at HU.

HU will do its utmost to promptly provide accurate information regarding the new coronavirus to the students, faculty and administrative members. Should HU come across the first case of the new coronavirus on its campuses, it will closely work with the relevant organizations so as to prevent the outbreak from spreading and provide the best possible cares to the people infected. 
 

January 31, 2020
Hiroshima University President 
Mitsuo Ochi