SARS Affects Utahns' Travel Plans

SARS Affects Utahns' Travel Plans


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Sandra Yi reporting A recent national travel survey showed one in three companies have banned trips to Asian countries because of SARS.

In Utah, the virus is now affecting plans for missionaries and students.

So far, the virus has killed at least 85 people in Asia and Canada and sickened at least 2,300 in more than a dozen nations.

What the World Health Organization has called a worldwide threat has prompted changes in many Americans' business and leisure plans.

Here in Utah, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today announced it will stop sending missionaires to Hong Kong until further evaluations are made.

Missionaries already there, though, will stay put.

BYU students Andrea Roundy and Letty Preston both served missions in Hong Kong. They say given the choice, they would go again.

Still, they're confident the Church's decision is right.

Seventeen other BYU students must also put off plans to study abroad in China. The students would have studied at Nanjing University, near Shanghai.

The program's director says the school made the decision today after many discussions with administrators and parents.

Also today President Bush issued an executive order saying people with SARS symptoms in the U.S. can be quarantined. Officials say there are no immediate plans for that.

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