New announcement from the Rector 11 March 2020 concerning COVID-19

Rector of the University of Iceland issued the following announcement to University students and staff concerning the COVID-19 outbreak:

"Dear students and staff,

The University of Iceland Emergency Response Board met this morning to discuss matters relating to COVID-19.

Pages on the main University website and the University intranet containing the main information on COVID-19 have been updated and will continue to be updated following daily meetings of the Emergency Response Board. These pages contain information about hygiene, travel, symptoms of the disease, mass gatherings, teaching and learning, and services.
 
Students and staff are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the material on these pages. We emphasise that hand washing is the best defence against the spread of disease, cf. guidance from the Directorate of Health and the University of Iceland Web of Science. We also emphasise that people who are more at risk should work from home, avoid unnecessary gatherings of people and practise good hygiene.
 
The Emergency Response Board urges faculty heads, department heads, faculty administrative officers and other administrators to familiarise themselves now with options for distance teaching and web conferencing to ensure that teaching can continue should a ban on mass gatherings be declared.
 
Comments and questions for the Emergency Response Board should be emailed to neydarstjorn@hi.is 

Best regards,

Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector/President"