Coronavirus Fears Force 19 Newton Students To Stay Home After Italy Trip
NEWTON (CBS) -- A group of Newton North High School students and their chaperones have been asked to stay home until further notice because of fears of the coronavirus. Nineteen students, two staff members, and one retired teacher just returned Saturday from a month-long trip to Italy.
The group spent three weeks staying with families in Florence and one in a hotel in Rome.
In recent weeks, the virus has spread to Italy. On Saturday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention placed Italy on their Level 3 travel warning list, recommending that people avoid all nonessential travel to the country.
"We are concerned about Italy as a country because it does have sustained community transmission, that being said, we don't have any information at this point, that our students were specifically exposed to anything," said Newton Commissioner of Health and Human Service Deb Youngblood.
"It's unsettling. Students want to return to school," said Superintendent David Fleishman. "We made the decision to postpone returning our students from Italy to school under the direction of our partners here at the Department of Health and Human Services. To be clear: no student has been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus or nor is anyone exhibiting any symptoms."
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller had a similar sentiment. "We completely understand why people are unsettled. The risk in Massachusetts and here in Newton from the COVID-19 virus is low," she said.
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There are no cases of coronavirus in Newton; the only case in the state has been a UMass Boston student who returned from Wuhan, China on Jan. 28 and tested positive for the disease on Jan. 31.
Fuller called the rise of the virus a "rapidly evolving situation" and said the city had established an emergency management committee. The city supervises anyone who is self-monitoring symptoms.
While students who attended the trip are home, they were asked to take their temperatures twice a day and look for symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath, and coughing. If they have any, they should contact their health provider and school nurse.
Family members have not been given any restrictions.
It has not been established when students will be able to return to school.
"I think they understand the world we are in right now, and that's something that students have to learn, and we're all actually getting used to as a society. I think our job is to support them as I said earlier, academically, but also emotionally -- make sure their councilors are in touch with them in case they have questions -- and hopefully, they'll be back in school as soon as possible," said Fleishman.
Newton North student Audrey Boucher said, "I think I was honestly expecting it to happen just because it spread so quickly in Italy and on the exchange they go everywhere in Italy. They went [to] northern Italy and then they were in Rome for the last week. It could be anywhere. And on the plane too, it can spread so easily."
In the meantime, Fuller reminded all Newton residents to wash your hands, cover your cough and sneezes, and if you have any symptoms stay home.
