STATEMENT REGARDING COVID-19 AND CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

As everyone is aware, the global situation with the Coronavirus (COVID- 19) is serious and changing by the day. We understand the multitude of questions and concerns that are arising with all our partners on these programs – our Host Employers, our Overseas Foreign Entities, and most importantly our Exchange Visitors. We have been monitoring the situation with COVID-19 going back to January, when the main epicenters of the virus were still contained to mainland China. We continue to monitor the situation with the virus daily, as it has continued its spread to all other parts of the world at this time. All decisions that have been, or will need to be, made are with the Health, Safety, and Welfare of these Exchange Visitors in mind.

We are in contact with our current Winter Exchange Visitors, from South America, who are preparing to return home and have updated them on the most recent travel restrictions that they can expect, depending on the country of their final destination. We would remind them, as well as our Spring participants, to continually monitor the developments in their home countries, which could impact their future upcoming travel. We are also monitoring changes in areas which could affect more of our Spring participants.

We are in contact with our remaining Winter, and current Spring, participants to remind them of best practices for good hygiene and to lessen the risk of exposure and transmission to COVID-19, as well as other more common seasonal illnesses such as colds and strains of influenza. We are also speaking with Host Companies who are having more severe impacts with this, due to the nature of their businesses. We greatly appreciate our partner Host Companies, who continue their proactive and sincere efforts to keep everyone updated and aware of changes that may be more localized.

We have also been in contact with Host Organizations who host our 12- month Hospitality Interns, and discussed possible temporary adjustments to normal Training Plans during this extraordinary situation.

For those potential Exchange Visitors, Host Companies, Foreign Entities, Parents, and other concerned parties for Summer programs – we would advise to continue monitoring the situation and potential changes before making final decisions on this summer’s participation. While no one can predict the future with certainty, we remain optimistic that the aggressive actions being taken by governments, businesses, and medical professionals will turn the course of this global epidemic in a way that will allow some return to normalcy by the middle of May (historically the start of most of our summer programs). As difficult as it can be under a constant media storm, we recommend that everyone remain as calm as possible while we navigate what we expect to be a very rough conclusion to the month of March, and then re-evaluate individual situations under the circumstances at that time.

In the meantime, please continue to minimize your exposure to large crowds, follow good hygiene practices (as can be found on the CDC’s website among others), and remain as flexible as possible under these very trying conditions.

Thank all of you for your ongoing support of these important Public Diplomacy Programs.

Sincerely,

Sonny Taylor
Vice President-Janus International