The global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is a rapidly changing, fluid situation. UNBC takes the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and other community members very seriously. I am providing the following update on our planning and response.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak can be characterized as a pandemic. However, the Provincial Health Officer has indicated that the public health risk associated with COVID-19 remains low. To date there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in northern B.C.

At UNBC, we continue to follow advice provided by provincial, national and international health authorities and organizations. We are working closely with other post-secondary institutions in British Columbia as well as a number of provincial ministries in regards to the planning and management of the crisis.

We are taking the outbreak seriously. In order to facilitate effective planning and to mitigate the risk, the University has struck a committee composed of senior leaders from across the institution to plan for the response if an outbreak were to occur in our community.

We will continue to update this website as the situation progresses. We will also communicate via email and social media when there is new information to share.

Preventing the spread of an infectious disease is a team effort and I thank everyone in our community who is working to ensure we have an excellent plan in place.

Everyone at UNBC has a role to play to prevent the spread of infection. I encourage everyone to take similar precautions to those you would take to prevent the spread of a cold or the flu, especially the practice of good hand hygiene, wash your hands with water and soap. Recognize that the symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, muscle aches and difficulty breathing whereas influenza also presents with the symptoms of sore throat, runny or stuffy nose.

This section of the website provides more specific precautions you can take, as well as up-to-date information on travel health notices and links to other important information.

If you have questions or concerns that are not currently addressed here, please contact safety@unbc.ca.

Thank you,

Geoff Payne
Interim President and Vice-Chancellor