Coronavirus Impacting Study Abroad Programs

Huntsville will also hold Coronavirus briefing

Happening today-- huntsville city, madison city and madison county leaders will be part of a coronavirus briefing to address public concerns.

City and county leaders will join officials from the state health department, huntsville hospital, and crestwood medical center.

They will focus on protocol and procedures to manage potential cases of coronavirus.

The event will be held at 10-30 at the madison county health department.

Right now, there are no reported cases in alabama but the entire country is preparing for the virus to spread.

And because of that -- some colleges and universities are pulling students out of their study abroad programs. waay 31's rodneya ross joins us live now with what one local university is doing to protect their students in other countries.

As you can imagine, having students overseas with a health crisis going on can be very concerning for universities and parents.

But here at the university of alabama huntsville, students will remain abroad for now.

A spokesman for the university says they only have six students studying abroad right now.

Those students are not in high risk areas.

The university is monitoring the outbreak and will bring students back if the virus continues to spreads we talked to one student who spent eight weeks interning in australia.

He said he's thinking of his fellow students safety as they're overseas.

"hopefully everyone is okay, especially anyone from uah, being a charger, i don't want anyone to be hurt."

The spokesman told us they cancelled a school sponsored trip to china out of caution.

Since u-a-h is apart of the alabama university system, it's working with the other campuses to determine what to do if the virus continues to spread.

In madison co, rr, waay 31 news.