Bothell High School closed Thursday in ‘abundance of caution’ over coronavirus fears
Bothell High School is closed Thursday, despite advice from public-health officials, amid fears of the new coronavirus.
The Northshore School District’s superintendent decided to close the school after a Bothell High employee returned from traveling internationally during last week’s midwinter break.
In a letter emailed to families about 10 p.m. Wednesday, superintendent Michelle Reid didn’t say what the person did at the school or where they traveled. Reid wrote that the staffer had been traveling with a family member who started feeling sick Tuesday and who is under a 14-day quarantine and being tested for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new virus.
The employee has not been tested but is quarantined at home for two weeks.
“These steps are being taken out of an abundance of caution,” Reid wrote. “In these unusual circumstances as the national picture continues to evolve — and with the strong presence of social media — I know it is easy to begin speculating and questioning. I ask for your patience and your respectful grace for our staff member, their family, and our school community.”
The school will be cleaned while it is closed, and any students and employees who came into contact with the person are being notified by the district. Classes are expected to resume Friday.
Closing schools if no student or school employee has a confirmed case of COVID-19 isn’t recommended by Public Health — Seattle & King County or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health said in a statement after the Bothell closure was announced.
“Though this closure is not necessary from a public health point of view, we know that school districts act out of extra special caution when they are protecting children,” the statement said. “And the school knows its community best and is in charge of making decisions about the school.”
The coronavirus, which has been named SARS-CoV-2, was detected in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in the Central China province of Hubei. Since people in Wuhan began falling ill with COVID-19 in December, about 82,000 people globally have been sickened and more than 2,800 have died.
Most of the illnesses and deaths have occurred in China, but — despite unprecedented measures to quarantine millions of people and restrict international travel — the virus has been spreading across the globe, reaching 50 countries on every continent except Antarctica.
At least 15 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. An additional 45 people who have been flown back from other countries to the U.S. by the State Department have also tested positive for the virus.
The CDC warned this week that Americans should prepare themselves for the virus to begin circulating in the U.S., saying it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.”
The first person in the U.S. confirmed to have COVID-19 was a 35-year-old Snohomish County man who was diagnosed in January. He spent several weeks in a temporary isolation unit at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett before being discharged on an undisclosed date around the end of January or beginning of February. He was then quarantined and monitored by public-health workers at home until last week, when he was declared fully recovered and free to go about his daily life.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 11:02 AM.