Students wait to hear if coronavirus will cancel March break trip to Italy

Dozens of high school students in New Brunswick are anxiously waiting to hear if their March break trip to Italy will proceed, given the outbreak of COVID-19 in the northern part of the European country.

There are more than 220 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Italy, and seven reported deaths.

Authorities have quarantined a dozen towns in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, and banned public gatherings across a wide area to try to stop the virus from spreading.

Patrick MacDonald, a Grade 12 student at Harbour View High School in Saint John, spent months saving up for the $4,000 trip and is scheduled to fly out on Thursday, with connections to Milan — the capital of the Lombardy region.

But he said students and chaperones heard from two organizer teachers on Monday that the trip may be cancelled.

"It is a trip of a lifetime ... and I will be disappointed if it's cancelled, but it's for my safety, if so." he said.

The trips are being organized by EF Educational Tours Canada.

The company didn't say how many people from New Brunswick have already paid to go, but the groups include students from Harbour View High School, St. Malachy's High School and Simonds High School in Saint John, Sussex Regional High School and Moncton's Bernice MacNaughton High School, as well as teachers, parents and chaperones.

EF Educational Tours Canada has been monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19 around the world closely, said company spokesperson Adam Bickelman.

"After the increase in new cases reported yesterday, we are allowing groups scheduled to travel to the most significantly impacted regions through March 31 to rebook without penalty," right up to the day of departure, he said in an emailed statement.

Options include delaying the trip, changing destinations within the existing itinerary or changing the itinerary entirely, including to domestic options, or taking a "refund" in the form of a transferable travel voucher.

"Groups typically work together to decide which flexible alternative is best for their group," said Bickelman.

If the Canadian government issues a travel advisory, the company "would steer all scheduled groups towards the flexible alternatives as our policy is not to send tour groups to areas under such warnings."

The planned trips to Italy are not school-sanctioned, according to Anglophone South School District superintendent Zoe Watson.

"Our school district would have trip guidelines and policies for high school students and middle school. We would sanction trips within Atlantic Canada ... Ontario," she said.

"Some of our high schools go down as far as New York City and do theatre tours and that type of thing, but not at this time international travel."

Public health advised

Watson said she informed the Saint John region's medical officer of health, Dr. Kim Barker, that students from as many as five high schools may be participating.

Now it's the group leaders who are expected to review their options and make a decision.

Patrick MacDonald said he expects to find out on Tuesday whether his trip will be changed or cancelled.

In the meantime, he said he's packing and crossing his fingers that it will still go ahead.

"I'm really excited to see the Sistine Chapel. I've wanted to my entire life. Vatican City is so beautiful and I've admired pictures of the brilliant artwork," said MacDonald.

"So the artwork is really exciting to me, and I think the food is going to be great as well."