Student at Arlington school tests positive for coronavirus, like parent who works at Biogen; some classmates, school staffers now being asked to self quarantine

Arlington town officials say the child of a Biogen employee who tested positive for Covid-19 after that meeting at the Marriott Long Wharf has now also tested positive for the virus.

The student attends the Stratton Elementary School, which was closed as a precaution today and to let town health officials track down all of the people there who might have been in "close contact" with the student. All Arlington schools, including the Stratton, will open tomorrow.

In a statement, officials said those "close contacts" - who include both other students and school employees - are now being asked to stay home for two weeks - and to monitor themselves for any cold-like symptoms that might indicate a Covid-19 infection.

The town did not identify how many students and workers this means, but said the school will set up "online learning technologies" for them so that they can continue at least some of their instruction - and that the employees will not have any of their missed days counted against their sick time.

A “close contact” is a person that has been within six feet of a confirmed case for longer than 15 minutes at one 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.

If an individual was in the same location as a person with COVID-19 before they had symptoms, even if they were in close contact, health officials stress that they were not exposed to the virus because the individual was not contagious at that time. In addition, health officials advise that walking through a building or room where there is or was a positive case of COVID-19 does not mean you are a close contact.