The Yale Model United Nations conference that draws high school students from around the world was shut down a day early over concerns about the coronavirus after a student from China fell ill with what is apparently the flu, a Yale spokeswoman said Sunday.
The four-day conference on Yale’s Connecticut campus was slated to end Sunday, but instead all events were canceled after a student had a cough and a fever. The student was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital and tested positive for influenza, Yale Health Director Dr. Paul Geneci said in a statement.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked that the student be tested for the potentially deadly coronavirus. Test results are not expected until midweek, Genecin said.
The pneumonia-like virus, first identified in Wuhan, China, has infected about 2,000 people and killed more than 50 in that country. There have been five confirmed cases in the U.S. as of Sunday, all in people who had recently traveled to China.
Yale did not release the student’s name or gender and did not say where in China the sick student was from.
Genecin said the patient is in good condition and has been released from the hospital but is being kept in isolation.
Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun requested that Sunday events be canceled after consulting with health experts.
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The conference draws about 1,800 high school students from 40 countries, according to its website
