Canadore College has sent home a handful of staff who attended the recent Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto, as a precautionary measure.
A Sudbury man in his 50’s who attended the convention is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Sudbury area.
He is now in self-isolation at home.
A total of 25,000 people from 132 countries attended the convention.
“We did have five staff attend PDAC. We’ve asked them to work from home until they’re cleared. They have complied, and I am happy to report that no one is showing any symptoms today and so we expect them to return to work and again we’ll monitor things very closely,” said Canadore College President George Burton.
Sudbury’s Laurentian University is offering classes online after cancelling classes on campus Wednesday.
Burton says Canadore continues to monitor the situation on an hourly basis.
“Currently we have no plans to close any of our campuses. We will continue operations as normal, but monitoring everything up close,” said Burton.
“We have curtailed all travel. We’ve cancelled international travel, and domestic travel only if necessary.”
The Canadore president says the college is doing what it can to ensure that people are protected against the virus.
“There’s more handwashing Purell stations on campuses at each location. We constantly remind people to wash hands frequently. We’ve upped our cleaning services in our laboratories and classrooms, and in general areas such as cafeterias and student lounges, again to protect our student population. And we have special efforts on-going in the residence complexes.”
Burton says the college will take direction from the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit.
