BARRIE -- Three international students from China have voluntarily gone into quarantine at Georgian College since arriving in Barrie last week.
New student Chris Lee has been in isolation for 10 days now, even though he received a clean bill of health and has no symptoms of the covid-19 virus. Still, he says he's not taking any chances as a precaution for the safety of everyone around him.
"I think Canadians are very friendly, and nobody treated me so nice," he said over the phone to CTV News. "You ask me why I voluntarily quarantine myself, that's cause I also want to keep them safe."
"He feels that it's his duty to protect the community here," said Lilly Lee (no relation), regional manager at Georgian College's International Centre. She says the situation hits close to home because, while she has been at the college for 14 years, she is originally from China.
As the outbreak spread in her homeland, she and others used an app to reach out to international students coming from China to Barrie to make sure they were supported.
"I'm a mom. I understand the shoes of another mom whose kid is 1,000 miles away from home and doesn't speak English," she says. "As a mom, and also as staff, it's really, like, my responsibility to help them."
Lilly says staff and students have been dropping off food, textbooks and other necessities for Chris while he's secluded. "We've been delivering food and stuff to the residence." And Lilly says the community has also pitched in supplying free meals.
While in isolation, Chris has been using his time wisely, confessing that he's been reading through course material to prepare for classes when they start in a few weeks.
