Princeton Isolates 108 Students After China Trip

Princeton University has ordered 108 recent student visitors to China to isolate themselves, most on its suburban New Jersey campus, as a precaution amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The students are being evaluated “on a one-by-one basis,” and most are expected to be classified low risk as early as this evening, according to Michael Hotchkiss, a spokesman for the Ivy League school. None of the students have shown symptoms of the potentially deadly virus, Hotchkiss said.

The university told students on Jan. 31 to self-isolate based on federal health guidance, he said.

“We’ve been working with them on academic, dining and housing needs,” Hotchkiss said by telephone. “Everyone who has been self-quarantined is a student. They’re all, in the vast majority, in campus housing.”

Worldwide, more than 17,000 cases have been reported, including 11 in five U.S. states. None has been reported in New Jersey. In all, coronavirus has killed more than 360 people.