HOLLAND, Mich. — Hope College's president says a student is being tested, "out of an abundance caution," for coronavirus.
The student reported "flu-like symptoms and potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus at an off-campus event," Hope College President Matthew Scogin says in a YouTube video today.
Hope College announced the situation in an email to the campus community last night.
"Just to be clear, this person has not been diagnosed with the virus," he says in the video. "Of course, we’ll share the test results with you as soon as we have them.”
Scogin stresses that it is "business as usual at Hope College” today, saying classes are in session and college offices are open.
“We’ve been monitoring this virus since it first appeared," he says. "We’ve been watching it carefully.
"We’ve also been preparing our campus for a variety of scenarios. If we had to, we could do delivery – online or off-campus delivery – of our coursework for a set amount of time.”
Scogin added that as "people of hope," the campus should "respond to this in a way that’s different from way that the rest of the world is responding to this right now."
“Almost as bad as the virus itself, is the 'virus' of fear that’s spreading around the world with it.”
The college president asks the Hope community to join him in "praying for this student.”
“We should rally around this person in prayer and support," he says. "We should not engage in any kind of gossip or belittling or discrimination of any kind.”
Watch President Scogin's video
