WEYMOUTH, Mass. — Health officials say they have no reason to believe a Weymouth High School staff members has the coronavirus after she reported she was self-quarantining herself.
Many people were concerned after the school superintendent sent a vague letter to staff and families Friday afternoon, which read in part:
At approximately noon today, Weymouth Public Schools officials were notified of a school employee that had self-reported having a fever yesterday after coming home from a trip abroad last week. The district notified the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Weymouth Health Department and has been collaborating with them closely on this matter. The district has been notified by health officials that there is no one in the school community suspected of having Coronavirus.
— Weymouth Superintendent Jennifer Curtis-Whipple
A source tells Boston 25 News that staff member traveled to France last week and reported coming down with a fever on Thursday and then called her doctor and told school leaders she was quarantining herself.
BREAKING: Weymouth heath officials say they have no reason to believe the staff member has coronavirus. Source tells me the staff member traveled to France last week, recently came down with a fever, called her doctor & self-quarantined. #Boston25 https://t.co/j7TciqpaQD
— Mike Saccone (@mikesacconetv) February 28, 2020
Both state and local health officials say they have no reason to believe that staff member has coronavirus.
Students at the school say panic ensued on Friday morning as word got out that an employee was suspected of having contracted the virus.
“I know a few people that wanted to go home and stuff,” said Luke Poulin, a student.
“I didn’t even know until I opened my Snapchat, and every single story was like coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus," said Patrick Chahine, a student. "I heard everyone talking about it.”
On Friday afternoon, a second statement came out to parents from the superintendent saying the situation was a false alarm. In the email, the superintendent reassured parents the school district had contacted the health department, which confirmed there was no one in the school community suspected of having the virus.
The Weymouth School District has been in contact with health officials who say they have not heard of any new, confirmed cases of the virus in the state.
© 2020 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
