The fate of this year’s Trinity Ball could be up in the air due to the coronavirus threat, with College leaving open the possibility that the ball could be shut down if the HSE’s surveillance taskforce advises it.
Trinity “will not be making any decisions regarding mass gatherings and closures”, and will follow the recommendations of the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre on any gatherings, Thomas Deane, a media relations officer in Trinity, wrote in an email statement to The University Times today.
Deane was responding to a question from The University Times about whether Trinity is considering cancelling the ball – which sees thousands of students descend on campus every year – ahead of its scheduled date of April 17th.
College may also run exams online this year, rather than in the RDS. Deane told The University Times that “Trinity is continuing to explore options for the online delivery of course content and assessments, as well as considering a range of other accommodations that may be put in place to ensure that our students are able to complete their studies for this academic year”.
Deane said that a working group set up in the College to monitor the situation, which previously met weekly, has begun meeting twice a week “as the situation evolves”.
Trinity is sharing information on posters around the College, and has set up a page on its website with the latest updates.
“The expert working group is actively devising contingency plans for a variety of scenarios in the college”, Deane wrote.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the government is not advising “at this stage” that St Patrick’s Day parades should be cancelled because of the spread of coronavirus, as the number of reported cases on the island of Ireland tonight hit nine people.
Asked about St Patrick’s Day parades, Varadkar said there was only one confirmed case of the virus in the State “so we’re not advising anyone to cancel any gatherings at this stage”.
“But bear in mind that the St Patrick’s Day festival is two weeks away and a lot can happen between now and then.”
Tonight, the HSE announced that four more cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in the west of Ireland, with two males and two females found to have the illness.
