Novel Coronavirus Information Resource Center

Last updated on April 24, 2020

Dear Morehouse College Community:

As you may have seen in the national and local media, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has issued an executive order that will allow trade schools, personal care businesses, and family entertainment destinations that practice social distancing to reopen Friday. The decision was made despite confirmations of rising COVID-19 infections across the state.

You can read a copy of the order here.

The health and welfare of our community is our top priority. I would like to assure you that Morehouse College will not reconvene classes on campus during the 2019-20 academic year. Our students, faculty, and non-essential staff will continue to shelter in place. We will not be influenced by politics. We will not endanger the lives of our community.

Read Dr. Thomas' full message »

Morehouse College is closely monitoring the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak that originated in China and has since spread to several other countries such as Iran, Italy, Japan, France, and the United States. Because this situation is extremely fluid we are recommending that all faculty, staff, students and parents monitor the Center for Disease and Prevention’s (CDC) website for the latest information and advisories located here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html.

A global health emergency was declared in February. As of April 18, there are more than 2.3 million confirmed cases and 162,000 deaths globally. In the U.S., there are now 722,761 confirmed cases and 33,903 deaths.

As of April 18, there were more than 17,841 confirmed cases and 677 deathes in the state of Georgia and Governor Kemp has declared a state of emergency. Fulton County Schools announced system-wide closures for March 10th in order to do further risk assessments and to clean schools.

We are taking this very seriously as Atlanta is a large, densely populated city, and home to the busiest airport in the country with thousands of travelers passing through our city each day.

The community’s health and well being is our top priority at Morehouse and this is no exception.

Our Emergency Management Team has been activated to coordinate with emergency preparedness, health care, public safety, campus life, communications and facilities representatives within Morehouse College and our colleagues within the other three campuses of the Atlanta University Center to: 1) monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, 2) educate faculty, staff, students, and parents of the characteristics of this new virus and safety measures they can take to protect themselves, and 3) create an action plan that anticipates every scenario possible and supports the continuity of college operations.

Timeline

• On February 28^th, we made the decision to cancel the Spring Tour which would have taken some of our students and chaperones to Ghana and Senegal. We sent this advisory to the entire community and have established this page to be a centralized resource related to information about COVID-19.
• On March 3^rd, the administration and faculty leaders decided to cancel all faculty-led study abroad programs until further notice. That announcement was shared community-wide and is located here.
• On March 12^th, the College announced the extension of spring break by one week and the transition of all in-person classes to online effective March 23rd. The announcement includes the cancellation of all campus events, college-sponsored domestic and international travel, and campus tours. See the full details here.
• On March 20th, the President announced the postponement of commencement to December 11-13, 2020. This announcement was followed by a YouTube video with senior class president Cornelius Ray.

The CDC has extensive information about coronaviruses as does the Georgia Department of Public Health and officials are conducting health screenings for passengers arriving from mainland China at several airports, including Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

We have provided a list of frequently asked questions about the coronavirus and some tips to help keep you healthy during flu season. You can also download this as a PDF by clicking: Coronavirus Fact Sheet March 3, 2020.