NYU student studying in Florence forced to return home amid COVID-19 concerns
A Healdsburg High School graduate who is studying international relations and pre-law at New York University (NYU) was studying abroad in Florence, Italy and was sent home last week due to concerns surrounding rising cases of COVID-19, a novel strain of the Corona family of viruses, in Italy.
Annapurna Johnson, who graduated from Healdsburg High School in May 2018, was supposed to be studying abroad for the semester from January until May. She said that tends to be a very popular time of year for college students studying abroad.
“We were not directly affected by this (COVD-19), the vast majority of this was in the northern area,” Johnson said in a phone interview on Friday, Feb. 28.
Over the weekend, cases in Italy increased 50% from 1,128 to 1,694 according to Italian Civil Protection Authority reports reported in a March 2 CNN article. The country’s outbreak had started in the northern regions of Italy in the provinces of Lombardy and Veneto.
On Monday, Feb. 24 at midnight, Johnson received an email from the school about departing Florence, however, she didn’t think much of it. She said by Tuesday the school had strengthened their comments about leaving and said that everyone had to be gone by Thursday, Feb. 27.
As reported in a Feb. 26 Washington Post article, a total of 300 students taking classes at the NYU Florence campus were set to leave to return home.
According to a news release from NYU spokesperson John Beckman, the decision to pull students from the Florence campus was guided by two priorities — the health and the well-being of students and the school community.
“NYU continues to be guided by two priorities — the health and well-being of our community across the globe, and the academic progress of our students,” Beckman said.
Beckman said that since COVID-19 cases have climbed steeply in northern Italy, the Italian government has been taking swift action to try and prevent its spread.
“While we do not believe there is a pressing health threat to the NYU Florence community, the past month has taught us that countries may swiftly and unexpectedly make decisions that can significantly affect one’s ability to travel,” Beckman said.
For Johnson, the journey home was a blur. The school paid for her ticket and she got a ticket for a Wednesday flight out of a tiny airport in Florence.
“It took an incredibly long time to get home,” she said, 36 hours to be exact. “It was total panic and melee at the Florence airport because it is a small airport … and a lot of people were trying to leave Florence at that time. There were more people than planes.”
So how will Johnson continue her semester?
She said she will be taking online classes from March 2 to March 29.
“We may be able to go back to Italy if it clears up,” Johnson said.
Johnson said it was a bit of a bummer to have to leave early.
“Studying abroad is a really amazing experience, you are learning about the culture and the family (you are staying with),” she said. “It is hard to leave those people you get close to. It was kind of heart wrenching.”
She added that the NYU campus in Florence is beautiful.
“I can’t explain to you how beautiful it is,” she said.
When asked what the atmosphere and moral was like in Florence in light of the virus, she said that it seemed carefree.
Johnson recalled that when she was grabbing a few things at the market one day, the cashier was surprised to hear that the university was sending students home.
Johnson said she wasn’t worried about the virus, since she is young and healthy, but worried about having to be stuck in a hospital if she had ended up getting infected.
When asked what her favorite part about studying abroad was, Johnson said she liked that she had a well-rounded experience, getting to know her host-family and having the opportunity to travel.
Last week she went to Budapest and she had been planning to visit Geneva. Johnson added that she liked that Florence felt a bit similar to Healdsburg.
“We were all devastated to leave and hoping that we get to go back,” she said.
