Message from the President: New interim measures re COVID-19

Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2020

The Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa announced earlier this afternoon that the number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases has doubled in one day and is now asking all people in Ottawa to increase their practices of social distancing, meaning:

• Limiting non-essential trips out of the home;
• Working to maintain a distance of 1-2 meters from other people as much as possible;
• Keeping children at home and not at daycares if possible;
• Implementing where possible options for workers to work from home or at a distance from one another at work.

The health and safety of our learners, employees and entire College community remains our priority. Consequently, I am asking everyone to adopt the following additional interim measures to help reduce the rapid spread of illness.

Employees who have made arrangements with their managers to work from home should implement these measures, effective immediately. Employees who may be able to work from home but have not yet made these arrangements should stay at home and contact their managers tomorrow (Monday, March 16) to confirm these arrangements. Further determinations regarding work-from-home capabilities and critical employees to sustain College operations, in the current context, will be made tomorrow, and communicated to all thereafter.

In addition to previous interim measures communicated to our College community, all employee and student international travel is suspended, effective immediately. Persons currently abroad are required to respect the 14-day quarantine requirements identified by Public Health Agencies upon their return. This remains in effect until further notice.

As well, all events at the College that are extra-curricular and all events that include hosting members of the public are cancelled until April 5, 2020. The situation will be re-assessed at that point.

I would like to remind everyone that the only official source for College updates and information relating to COVID-19 is our dedicated webpage, which will be updated as information becomes available: www.algonquincollege.com/coronavirus. Learners and employees should monitor this webpage and check their College email and Brightspace accounts regularly.

I know these are unprecedented challenging times for us, and I thank everyone for your continued patience and understanding as we respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation. I appreciate that this is a difficult time for our learners, employees and the College community. Thank you for your continued attention to these important matters.


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