Lower Merion Schools Lay Out Proactive Coronavirus Measures

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — After the CDC issued a warning about the new coronavirus, the Lower Merion School District is letting families know how it is handling the virus's potential impacts.

Superintendent Robert Copeland issued a letter to the community Thursday outlining steps the district is taking to keep students, faculty, staff, and administration safe from the illness.

See Copeland's letter below:

Dear LMSD Families

You are no doubt aware of news reports concerning coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), which has spread throughout China and to 31 other countries and territories, including the United States. While there are no reports of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, the Lower Merion School District is preparing for the possibility that the disease could make its way to our area.

The District already has many protocols in place due to cold and flu season, which we will continue to implement and can increase, should that be warranted. In addition, the District has an Emergency Operation Plan that is aligned with the best practices specified by FEMA and PEMA. Finally, we are reinstituting practices that we have used during previous situations, such as the H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic in 2009.

What the District is Doing:

• Communication and Monitoring
  • At this time of year, the Health Services department monitors student illness reports, trends and absenteeism and is in frequent (often daily) contact with the Office of Public Health of Montgomery County.
  • In addition, we are monitoring the latest information from the Pa. Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These agencies let us know when cases of certain communicable diseases are confirmed. They also issue guidelines for action and communications.
  • Finally, we are asking families to let us know if members of their households have recently returned from places where COVID-19 has been confirmed. All students currently in school, who have returned from impacted countries, have been cleared by the Office of Public Health.
• Planning for Contingencies
  • A team of administrators – including representatives from Health Services, Curriculum, Operations, Community Relations and Information Services — is meeting weekly (and can meet more often, if needed) to share information from governmental health officials and to plan responses. So far, work has begun to:
  • Ensure the District has adequate cleaning and disinfecting supplies
  • Plan how classes could be held using technology, if school closures are warranted
  • Determine how best to communicate timely and accurate information to staff and families
• Cleaning
  • The Health Services Department and Custodial Departments work together to try to limit the spread of diseases whenever possible. Although most diseases are not typically spread through inanimate objects, the Custodial Department provides extra cleaning attention to schools during times of increased illness.
  • When indicated, District staff use a form of electrostatic cleaning using vital oxide. This is a highly effective method of disinfection that can reach objects and surfaces not ordinarily reached during cleaning.
  • In addition, teachers who request it are provided with an environmentally friendly and effective agent for killing most infectious agents. They can use this on inanimate surfaces in their classrooms, when children are not present.
• Education
  • We are reminding and supporting teachers to encourage good hygiene practices and stress their importance to our students. Good handwashing and cough/sneeze etiquette remain some of the most of effective ways to prevent the spread communicable illness. Nurses in all buildings continue hand-washing lessons and additional reminder posters are being hung in schools.

Attached to this letter are resource sheets from the Pa. Department of Education and the CDC with additional information about COVID-19. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call your health care provider or the LMSD Health Services Office at 610-645-182.

Sincerely,
Robert Copeland
Superintendent

Communities, schools and businesses in Pennsylvania and elsewhere should begin preparing now for "the expectation that this could be bad," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease.

To date, no one in Pennsylvania has tested positive for COVID-19, state health officials confirmed Tuesday. But state officials say they're preparing for a spread of the disease across the community.

So far in Pennsylvania, officials have activated the Department of Health's Emergency Operations Center to allow for enhanced response coordination. Symptom monitoring has been done for residents returning to Pennsylvania from China.

Additionally, the state has reviewed and adapted current pandemic flu plans for COVID-19.
Globally, at least 80,000 people have been infected and 2,700 people have died from the As of Tuesday, 57 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine.

Three dozen of the patients in the United States diagnosed with the disease are among passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined for weeks off the coast of Japan; three patients were infected in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak, and the others contracted the virus while traveling abroad.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday the "sudden increase in new cases" outside of China is "deeply concerning."
The symptoms of the new coronavirus are similar to seasonal influenza, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Both are infectious respiratory illnesses, but they're caused by different viruses.
Both cause fever, cough, body aches and fatigue, and can result in pneumonia. Both illnesses can sometimes cause vomiting and diarrhea. Both can be spread from person to person by sneezing, coughing or talking.
Common good-health practices such as frequent hand-washing, covering coughs and staying home from work or school during the course of the illness can help control the spread of both illnesses.
Neither responds to antibiotic treatment, but both may be treated by addressing symptoms, such as reducing fever. Both illnesses can be severe enough to require hospitalization.
But there are some distinct differences between the two:
Flu is caused by several different types of viruses, while COVID-19 is caused by the new coronavirus, which is also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2.
Johns Hopkins says there is some evidence COVID-19 could be airborne, "meaning that tiny droplets remaining in the air could cause disease in others even after the ill person is no longer near."
There is no vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus, as there is against influenza. Scientists around the world are racing to find a vaccine for the new coronavirus, although none currently exists.
A company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has shipped vials of its novel coronavirus vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for further research.
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