Lemont High School, D113A Closed Friday Due To Coronavirus

LEMONT, IL — Lemont High School District 210 and Lemont-Bromberek District 113A have announced all schools will be closed Friday. A visitor to the high school campus earlier this week has reported that her child, who attends school in a different district, was kept home Thursday with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, both districts said.

School administrators are not aware of any students, faculty or staff, or their family members who have been positively diagnosed with coronavirus.

LHS will close the building for a "deep clean" Friday and over the weekend. District 113A said it will also take the same precautionary measure and will "deep clean" its buildings as well.

District 113A will utilize an e-Learning day on Friday. The district said it has also postponed several events including: the book fair, Old Quarry's play "Snow White" variety show, EL family game night, field trips, first grade music performance, OQ spring dance and EC family night.

Champions will remain open for families from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

The districts expect to be in session Monday, but will communicate with the public no later than 7 p.m. Sunday if that were to change.

All after-school activities at LHS were also canceled Thursday. All instructional and extra-curricular activities are cancelled through Sunday.

The districts said they continue to monitor information and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health, and are developing contingency plans for eLearning in the event the building needs to be closed for an extended period of time.

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Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called SARS-Cov-2, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19, the illness caused by SARS-Cov-2, struck the U.S. on Jan. 21.

The disease, which apparently originated in animals, is now being spread from person to person, although the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Its symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and many patients develop pneumonia. There is as yet no vaccine against COVID-19 and no antiviral treatment.

According to the CDC, the best way of preventing the disease is to avoid close contact with people who are sick, to avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, to wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and to use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.

To avoid spreading any respiratory illness, the CDC recommends staying at home when you are sick, covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and throwing the tissue in the trash, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.