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La. health department monitoring locals who traveled abroad amid virus scare

4 years 4 weeks 1 day ago Friday, February 28 2020 Feb 28, 2020 February 28, 2020 10:50 PM February 28, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ TV

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana state health department is checking-in with an unreleased number of people who have returned to Louisiana from places like China amid an outbreak of COVID-19, known as the coronavirus.

Health leaders met Friday and will meet with the governor's emergency response unit Monday.  

There are no cases of the virus in Louisiana.

Health officials, though, said they are in contact with travelers from Louisiana who were abroad amid the virus' spread.  Those people are being spoken with daily and report things like temperature or any illness-like feelings.  In an interview with WBRZ Friday, the state would not elaborate on the number of people being monitored and said there were no required quarantines.

LSU canceled a planned study abroad trip amid the concerns, officials told WBRZ.  The trip was planned for later in the semester.

A group of high school girls visiting Italy returned to Louisiana this week after people in parts of Italy fell ill with the virus.  Friday, St. Joseph's Academy where the girls attend, shared a letter with parents on the situation.  The school said the student group did not go near any areas in Italy affected by the virus. They will return to school as planned next week.

Click HERE to review symptoms of the virus.

The state posted information about its plans to deal with the virus here.

If you have questions about Coronavirus, please contact the Coronavirus general information line at 1-855-523-2652 from 8 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Friday.

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Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz

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