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14 / Coronavirus Special

hin Jeongyeon, a 20-year-old The number of confirmed COV- tures via Zoom, a platform adopted
South Korean student, who ID-19 cases in Hong Kong is 915 as of university-wide to conduct online
Sstudies Operations Manage- April 7. The Hong Kong government teaching.
ment at the Hong Kong University has announced the closure of all kin- Zoom is now widely used by not
of Science and Technology (HKUST), dergartens, primary, and secondary just universities but also by second-
has put off her study in 2019/2020 schools until further notice.
Term 2 due to the COVID-19 out- This is the second time Hong “
break. She now is in Korea with her Kong universities have announced
parents. a suspension in the school year of It is the connections
“My parents suggested a suspen- 2019/2020. The universities sus- and the unique
sion, considering the severity of the pended physical classes in mid-No-
coronavirus outbreak,” Shin says. vember 2019, due to violent clashes campus memories
Coronavirus Disease 2019, or between protesters and police offic- that I cannot have
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness ers on campuses during the anti-ex-
caused by a virus first identified tradition bill movement. during virtual
in Hubei, China, late last year. It is HKUST implemented the online classes
now confirmed as a pandemic by the teaching arrangement in response
World Health Organization (WHO) to the suspension, on November
due to its rapid widespread nature. 12, 2019. HKUST began online lec- ”