Trinity will make a “detailed announcement” on its closure later today, the College has confirmed, after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar today announced that colleges will close from tomorrow until March 29th.
A tweet from the College said that “Trinity will be making a detailed announcement explaining what college closure will mean for staff and students later today”.
In an email sent to all staff and students, Provost Patrick Prendergast wrote: “Further information from Trinity will follow by email. Thank you for your continued support.”
Varadkar’s announcement, made from Washington DC, also means schools, childcare institutions and cultural institutions will close.
Varadkar said the virus “will continue to spread but it can be slowed. Its impact can be reduced”.
The number of confirmed cases in Ireland now stands at 61. Some 43 people have contracted the virus in the Republic, and 18 in Northern Ireland.
Until now, the College’s directive had been that physical lectures would be cancelled for the rest of the semester, with online teaching put in place to replace them. Tutorials, seminars and labs were to continue, according to an email sent by Provost Patrick Prendergast on Tuesday.
But a slew of departments have opted to cancel all physical teaching sessions – including tutorials, lectures and seminars – and implement remote teaching.
Hours before Prendergast announced the move to online lectures, 40 academic staff wrote to him urging that the College be closed “for all bar essential lab-based teaching”, in a letter obtained by The University Times.
“The country faces a crisis described yesterday by Professor Sam McConkey as akin to the 1916 Spanish flu combined with the Wall Street Crash plus the Civil War. We are most concerned in the first instance with the health issue”, the signatories wrote.
At least 16 societies have suspended events due to the spread, The University Times reported yesterday.
The College Health Service has suspended walk-in appointments, and the library will be operating at reduced capacity in the coming weeks to implement “social distancing”.
Hand sanitisers are in place in various locations across the College.
