Northshore School District to close for up to 2 weeks amid COVID-19 concerns

The Northshore School District closed Thursday for up to two weeks as novel coronavirus continues to spread in Western Washington.

Students will be out of class on Thursday and Friday. District officials plan to begin online classes on Monday, March 9.

No confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been linked to any school in the district, though testing was underway for an employee at Frank Love Elementary School, according to the letter sent to parents Wednesday night, which closed Monday. Bothell High School was also closed for two days last week for deep cleaning after a school employee had a family member placed in quarantine for a possible novel coronavirus infection. That family member eventually tested negative for the virus.

Additionally, "multiple individuals from across our district are in self-quarantine because they may have been exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus as a result of the issues at the senior home in Kirkland," the letter states.

Twenty-six of the district's 33 schools have been directly or indirectly exposed to COVID-19. Twenty percent of the district's students were absent on Wednesday.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, King County health officials did not recommend school closures and said children did not appear to be at serious risk. However, those in certain categories like being age 60 or older, pregnant or with weakened immunity were at greatest risk.

"As we are a veteran staff in Northshore, we have employees who fall into all of these categories," the letter from Northshore states.

As of Wednesday, there were 39 confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide and 10 deaths related to the disease. Those numbers, including some retroactive numbers, were expected to grow as testing increases.

Symptoms of the novel coronavirus include a fever, dry cough or other respiratory problems. Those with mild symptoms don't always need to be tested, health officials said Wednesday.

However, King County Executive Dow Constantine encouraged employers to allow their workers to telecommute when possible and encouraged people to avoid large groups of 10 or more.

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