UNH student home after told to leave S. Korea due to widespread corona outbreak

Shopkeepers wait for customers on a normally busy commercial street in central Daegu in South Korea (Reuters photo)

A Greater Rochester man is under voluntary quarantine today after returning from South Korea, where 505 new cases of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, were reported on Thursday.

The 19-year-old man, a University of New Hampshire sophomore, had just begun a study-abroad program last week and was in the midst of orientation for his upcoming finance and economics course when he was notified on Wednesday around 6 p.m. (Korea Standard Time) that they were shutting down the program and advising the local teen and three other students involved in the program to return to the United States as soon as possible.

With South Korea 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, he arrived back home on a commercial flight into Logan International Airport in Boston around 10 p.m. local time Wednesday night.

"He was screened twice on the way back," said his dad, who asked not to have his son or the family identified by name. "Right now he is on an informal house (quarantine)."

He said the family has been in contact with Frisbie Memorial Hospital and will keep them apprised if any symptoms surface, adding Frisbie had relayed to him they have already prepared protocols for any potential local outbreak and have a team in place. The family has also been in close consultation with his primary care provider.

"We've taken all precautionary measures," he said.

He added that his son was very disappointed about the curtailment of his studies in South Korea, adding he'd only been in country five days before having to leave.

"He loved the food and said it was beautiful there," he said, noting his son was in the southeastern part of the country.

Whether he'd go back when the all-clear is sounded is more a question of logistics than whim, however, as his son is looking at possibly losing some credits with the aborted trip and doesn't know yet how it will affect his ability to graduate in two more years.

"Hopefully he'll be able to do some online work to salvage those credits he's now lost," his dad said.