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Vacation gone awry? Over 40 American students return home with COVID-19

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaEdited By: Bharat SharmaUpdated: Apr 03, 2020, 03:00 PM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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Over 44 out of 70 people who went to Mexico from Texas two weeks ago are now down with the virus

Spring break, considered a vacation ritual among American youth, has now created a new cluster of COVID-19!

As reported by CNN, over 44 out of 70 people who went to Mexico from Texas two weeks ago are now down with the virus.

All in their 20s, the youth circumvented the warning set in course by White House officials, who had directed people not to gather in large numbers, and to avoid inessential travel.

All 44 cases are students of the University of Texas, Austin.

"Quit being an a**," Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen told CNN, in a harshly worded message to people not following protocol. "Get over yourselves. Whether you think this is an issue or not, it is. Whether you think it could affect you or not, it does. The reality of it is, if I'm a college kid who's going to spring break in Mexico, you're affecting a lot of people. Grow up."

What’s scarier is that the flight taken by students carried multiple other passengers, to whom they may have given the virus, or perhaps contracted from. 

The Austin Public Health Department has traced other passengers from the flight and is now monitoring them.

"The virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalised or dying," Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Mark Escott said in a statement. 

"While younger people have less risk for complications, they are not immune from severe illness and death from COVID-19."

"The university is working closely with Austin Public Health to assist in contact tracing," university spokesman JB Bird said. "The incident is a reminder of the vital importance of taking seriously the warnings of public health authorities on the risks of becoming infected with COVID-19 and spreading it to others."

All the COVID-19 positive students have been put into isolation.