Coronavirus outbreak impacting Atlanta organizations

ATLANTA - Concerns over the latest coronavirus have impacted more than just Atlanta’s airport. It has caused several organizations to change plans.

One of the biggest is a Chinese festival in town scheduled for next week. Organizers of the Spring in Atlanta have postponed it due to illness. It was originally scheduled for Feb. 6 in Gwinnett County, but that is now on hold indefinitely.

Organizers said it took six months to pull the festival together, but they would rather postpone the event until the outbreak is under control.

Some colleges and universities are also taking precautions. Georgia Tech said they had two students studying abroad or interning in China. The school officials said they're reaching out to them to provide assistance and make arrangements for them to leave the country.

“Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuance of a Level 3 warning to avoid all non-essential travel to China, Georgia Tech has canceled Spring 2020 internship and study abroad programs to China,” Georgia Tech wrote in a statement sent to FOX 5 News.

Brenau University in Gainesville is postponing its scheduled faculty exchange programs. School officials said it will determine at a later date if they're student ambassadors will take their scheduled trip to the country in the spring.

“We are not halting our exchange program with China. We are simply postponing a few routine trips until a time we feel it is safer for faculty to be flying back and forth, but the program is still underway,” the school wrote in a statement sent to FOX 5 News.

The Savannah College of Art and Design actually has a campus in Hong Kong. They released the following statement on Thursday:

"The health, safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff are the university's top priorities.  Therefore, SCAD is closely monitoring the situation in China and actively communicating with our student body from the impacted region. Out of an abundance of caution, the university has and continues to equip them with information about symptoms and connect them to university wellness resources.”

Some other groups and schools haven't made any major changes yet, but said they are closely monitoring the coronavirus situation.