Arlington Child Tests Positive For Coronavirus, School To Reopen

ARLINGTON, MA — A student at the Stratton Elementary School has tested positive for the coronavirus, school and health officials said Monday. The child's mother has also tested positive for the virus. Both cases are "presumptive positive," which means the Centers for Disease Control still needs to verify the test results. Of the state's 41 cases, only one — a UMass student who traveled to China — has been confirmed positive so far.

Stratton Elementary School was closed Monday after the child showed symptoms associated with the coronavirus. The child's mother, a woman in her 40s, attended a Biogen employee conference in Boston last week that has been linked to several presumptive positive cases of the coronavirus.

The second parent in the household and their other child, a Gibbs student, are symptom-free but will remain in self-quarantine for 14 days.

All Arlington schools will be open Tuesday, March 10. The Health Department on Monday notified all faculty and staff and the families of any students who are considered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) as being "close contacts" with the infected student. Those people have been advised to self-quarantine for 14 days and not report to school on Tuesday, in accordance with the advice of DPH.

A "close contact" is a person that has been within six feet of a confirmed case for longer than 15 minutes at a time, or in direct contact with infectious secretions while the case was likely to be infectious. A person is likely to be infectious from when they begin exhibiting symptoms up until at least 24 hours after they are symptom-free.

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The town and the Arlington Public Schools stress that those who have not been told to self-quarantine by the Health Department do not need to self-quarantine.

If a person was in the same location as a person with COVID-19 before they had symptoms, even if they were in close contact, health officials say that transmission is very unlikely. In addition, health officials advise that walking through a building or room where there is or was a positive coronavirus case does not mean you are a close contact.

The situation is fluid and new information is being posted regularly by the CDC and DPH. The CDC offers the following guidance for how COVID-19 spreads:

Person-to-person spread

The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.
- Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
-Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
- These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.

Can someone spread the virus without being sick?

- People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).
- Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

Spread from contact with contaminated surfaces or objects.

It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

The Arlington Public Schools will utilize online learning technologies to ensure that students will be able to continue their lessons with as little disruption as possible. No student or employee in self-quarantine will have their absences counted against them, and employees will not be using their paid time off/sick time.

As always, if anyone displays symptoms of the coronavirus, including a fever, cough, or shortness of breath, they should not come to work or school and they are advised to contact their primary care physician.

Arlington health officials are awaiting test results on another Arlington family, a member of which also attended the Biogen conference, whose children attend school at Dallin Elementary, Gibbs and Arlington High School.

The risk of coronavirus to the general public in Massachusetts remains low, officials said. A second sanitization of the Stratton School occurred Monday, with crews using cleaning sprays and electrostatic machines, which are particularly effective at mitigating infections and viruses, with special attention to commonly touched surfaces and objects.

As always, children and adults should be reminded to take everyday precautionary steps to stay healthy, including hand-washing, which is always the first line of defense against the spread of germs.

"We have an excellent team of professionals in the Town of Arlington who ensure our community is well-prepared to respond to a public health crisis," Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine said in a statement. "We have been in constant communication with the Department of Public Health, and all of our actions are being taken in consultation with state and local public health officials. I want to reassure everyone in our community that the risk remains low and Arlington is open for business."

In a planning meeting on Friday, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Kevin Kelley implemented the federal Incident Command System. Public Health Director Natasha Waden was named the Incident Commander for coronavirus preparedness and response in Arlington.

The Arlington Health Department will continue to monitor the global spread of COVID-19 and continue to keep residents informed.

For more information, the Town of Arlington Health and Human Services COVID-19 page or call the health department at 781-316-3170. You may also visit the DPH's website or the CDC's website.