School trips within Canada for students in the Kamloops-Thompson School District are not affected by a decision to cancel trips to Europe due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Assistant Superintendent Bill Hamblett says that includes a trip to Edmonton set to happen next month.

“For travel within the country, it doesn’t seem to be an issue right now,” he told NL News. “We’ll monitor that and take our lead from public health.”

A South Kamloops Secondary school trip to Costa Rica is still expected to go ahead as scheduled, though Hamblett notes officials are monitoring that situation for any changes.

“I think the situation has been described as fluid and I don’t think anybody expected when we head about this a month ago for us to be where we are now,” Hamblett added.

This morning, the province announced the first COVID-19 related death in the country, and the BC government is urging people to avoid travelling abroad over spring break, and to monitor symptoms if you do have to travel.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says at this point there is no need to shut down any public schools in the province.

At the time of publishing, there were 32 confirmed cases of the virus in British Columbia, and 76 in Canada.