EDMONTON

Catholic schools cancel trips to Asia, Europe due to coronavirus; public school trips still on

CTV News Edmonton

Diego Romero CTVNewsEdmonton.ca Journalist

Published Tuesday, February 25, 2020 2:01PM MST

This illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). (CDC via AP, File)

Text:

EDMONTON -- Edmonton Catholic Schools have cancelled spring break trips to Japan, Italy and Spain as coronavirus cases increase across the world, but Edmonton Public Schools' trips to Japan and Italy remain a go.

Approximately 80 students were scheduled to visit Japan in March, with another 50 students planning to visit Italy and Spain as part of another trip, the school board said. Edmonton Catholic Schools said it would try to change the Italy portion of the trip to Portugal.

Last month, Edmonton Public School cancelled all trips to China for the remainder of the school year. On Tuesday, EPSB told CTV News Edmonton its spring break trips to Japan and Italy have not been cancelled.

Fourteen students and staff from D.S. MacKenzie School are scheduled to travel to Japan, while approximately 130 students and staff from five schools are travelling to a number of cities in Italy and France, and London.

Italy saw an overnight increase of 27 per cent in COVID-19 cases for a total of 322. The virus has killed an estimated 2,700 — the large majority in Hubei, China — and according to Johns Hopkins University, there were 80,350 as of Tuesday morning.

There are 11 confirmed cases in Canada, but Alberta's top doctor said the risk of contracting coronavirus in Alberta remains low.