President pays online visit to students under mandatory quarantine
Five students from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) are under quarantine because of COVID-19. They received online visits from the CityU President Professor Way Kuo together with Chief-of-Staff and Dean of Students on 5 March.
The two local undergraduates, and one undergraduate and two postgraduates from the mainland, are under mandatory quarantine. Four of them have returned to Hong Kong from abroad, while one is still in Japan.
President Kuo demonstrated a basic yoga breathing exercise during the online meetings to encourage students to exercise more.
Lam, a local undergraduate who tested positive for COVID-19 after a cruise trip on the Diamond Princess with his family, is still under quarantine at a hospital in Japan.
President Kuo telephoned him to check on his well-being and he was offered help in coordinating his studies. Dean of Students is also keeping close contact with him.
“I am still in hospital but in good health,” Lam said. “But unfortunately my test result for the virus is still positive.”
During the online meeting, he expressed his support for CityU’s online learning platform and said he hoped he could have a computer to facilitate his learning. CityU immediately contacted the relevant government department to provide assistance.
The other was Sun, a postgraduate stranded in Wuhan who had asked President Kuo for help earlier. Under the instruction of the President, the Dean of Students directly contacted the Economic and Trade Office of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Wuhan.
She returned to Hong Kong on 4 March on the first chartered flight arranged by the HKSAR Government and is currently under mandatory quarantine at a centre for 14 days.
In the video communication, these five students expressed their appreciation for CityU’s prompt response and support, and they thanked the Office of the Dean of Students wholeheartedly for keeping contact with the students and providing support.
President Kuo said the University would continue to maintain close contact with the students, emphasising that he hoped the epidemic would end soon and normal teaching, learning and research be resumed.
In view of the COVID-19, CityU’s Emergency Response Unit is closely monitoring the development of the epidemic.
CityU was the first local university to introduce a real time, campus-wide, interactive online learning system. For the safety of staff and students, campus is regularly disinfected, a number of infrared temperature checking systems have been set up, and electronic access control systems have been installed.