Amid growing concern about the global coronavirus outbreak, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has taken numerous measures including canceling school trips and requiring students who may have traveled to high risk zones such as Italy, China, Iran and South Korea to stay home from school for 14 days.

School officials are also asking students who are experiencing any fever, cough or respiratory symptoms to stay home until they are symptom-free for 24 hours without the aid of medication. If a student or staff member presents any flu-like symptoms in school, the protocol calls for them to receive a mask from the nurse and be sent home.

In an email sent out to parents, schools superintendent Dr. Matthew D’Andrea wrote, “This may mean you will see people leave school with a mask on. Please do not assume that every person with a mask has the coronavirus. It is more likely it’s the flu or a common cold, but we are taking all precautions necessary.”

Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School principal Peter Steedman also sent out a letter to parents assuring them that the schools are taking all necessary health precautions, including strict adherence to hand washing.

On Monday, the regional high school canceled the annual trip to the Model United Nations that is taking place this weekend in New York city. Principal Sara Dingledy said school leaders made the decision after consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and the State Department of Public Health.

“Ultimately . . . due to the significant risk of exposure to the coronavirus and the international nature of this event, we made the decision,” she wrote in a letter that went out to parents Monday afternoon.

The U.N. conference is a school-sponsored extracurricular activity where students take on the role of delegates to the United Nations and sit on mock U.N. committees. Vineyard regional high school students have long participated in the conference, which draws around 1,000 students from all around the globe.

“Students are upset. They’ve worked very hard for a very long time in preparation for the trip,” Ms. Dingledy told the Gazette by phone Monday afternoon.

Some of the MVRHS Model U.N. participants decided to still attend the conference despite the high school’s cancellation of the trip.

“People may have weighed their own individual risk and decided they still wanted to go. Model U.N. is accepting of that,” Ms. Dingledy said.

On Wednesday, the regional high school canceled a school-sponsored ski trip to New Hampshire set to depart this weekend after the superintendent’s office released a new protocol surrounding the coronavirus threat. Part of the new policy is to evaluate the safety of traveling to places where there are confirmed cases of coronavirus.

In the case of the ski trip, Ms. Dingledy told the Gazette, “We just don’t want to organize a sanctioned event that could bring something back to the Island that is not here yet. There actually are several cases in New Hampshire that are very close to where we were going, so we made the call.”

The regional high school has not yet made a decision about the school trip to Spain and Portugal that takes place during April break.

“We haven’t made that decision yet, everything is happening so fast we’re tabling that,” Ms. Dingledy said.

In his letter to parents, Mr. D’Andrea stressed the need for parents to be vigilant.

“We understand that people are concerned about the coronavirus,” Mr. D’Andrea’s letter read in part. “Schools are not able to screen students or staff for the flu or for the coronavirus. We rely on parents to follow up with health care providers and to provide us with pertinent information.”