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Arlington child whose parent tested positive for coronavirus develops symptoms; town will shut the student's school as a precaution tomorrow

Arlington officials tonight announced a resident has tested positive for Covid-19 and that the town will close the Stratton Elementary School, because the resident's child, a student there, is showing cold-like symptoms that could be caused by the virus.

In a statement tonight, town officials said they are still awaiting results from a test on the student.

Town officials took into account, in deciding to close the Stratton School on Monday, that Arlington’s Board of Health believes that this is the first or one of the first COVID-19 tests on a symptomatic sitting student in a Massachusetts Public School whose parent tested positive for the illness.

“It is never an easy decision to close a school building. We are ever-mindful of childcare needs and family schedules, however we are faced with a challenging and uncertain situation,” Superintendent Bodie said. “Without test results in hand, and with a parent who has tested positive for COVID-19, the leadership team in Arlington unanimously feels that it is best to close the Stratton on Monday and re-evaluate during the day.

All other Arlington schools will open normally on Monday, and town health official are not recommending parents or students do anything further.

However, if families or children display symptoms of COVID-19, including a fever, cough or shortness of breath, they should not come to work or school.

In Newton, officials decided to open a school attended by a student whose parent tested positive for the virus, but unlike in Arlington, the student remains symptom free.

State public-health officials reported today that all of the new Massachusetts Covid-19 cases announced today were among people who attended a Biogen employee meeting at the Marriott Long Wharf a little over a week ago.

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Comments

how olds the kid. i thought kids were immune.

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also, the virus dissipates after about two hours on surfaces. the sckools been closed all weekend. why doesnt the kid just stay home.

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They may have already infected other children so everyone should stay home while they wait and see who else is sick.

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Ars Technica posted a comprehensive guide earlier:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars...

If I’m reading it right, they warrent it can be 9–14 days, (9 being how long it can live to infect someone new, and up to 14 for symptoms to show).

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Follow-up, cause I’m dyslexic: 6 days until you may show symptoms after point of infection.

TL;DR, just read the article. Helpful stuff.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars...

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Firstly, while it appears to be the case that most children who test positive for 2019-nCoV are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, there have unfortunately still been documented deaths in children as young as 2. And just as importantly, if a child gets it but doesn't get very sick themselves, they're still going to be infectious, and put their families and community at risk. This is very similar to what occurs with other coronaviruses, as well as diseases like chickenpox.

Secondly, it is well documented that coronaviruses can remain viable on hard surfaces for days, especially if protected from sunlight and oxygen by being encased in an "organic matrix" - aka a blob of crud. No reason to think that this strain is any different.

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I think the first comment was more of a question than a declaration.

I too have been under the impression children of a certain age won't get sick or even shown symptoms but still are able to carrier and transmit the virus.

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Ignorance is dangerous.

Go here for the latest on this in MA: https://www.mass.gov/resource/information-on-the-outbreak-of-coronavirus...

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The virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading from person-to-person. Someone who is actively sick with COVID-19 can spread the illness to others. That is why CDC recommends that these patients be isolated either in the hospital or at home (depending on how sick they are) until they are better and no longer pose a risk of infecting others.

How long someone is actively sick can vary so the decision on when to release someone from isolation is made on a case-by-case basis in consultation with doctors, infection prevention and control experts, and public health officials and involves considering specifics of each situation including disease severity, illness signs and symptoms, and results of laboratory testing for that patient.

Current CDC guidance for when it is OK to release someone from isolation is made on a case by case basis and includes meeting all of the following requirements:

The patient is free from fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.
The patient is no longer showing symptoms, including cough.
The patient has tested negative on at least two consecutive respiratory specimens collected at least 24 hours apart.
Someone who has been released from isolation is not considered to pose a risk of infection to others.

This is the part I have questions about. I don't think I've ever had "the flu". I know I've never taken anti viral medications for it anyway. Does that mean I've actually never had it? Or does it mean that I've "had it" but I just didn't have a strong strain. And if I did have it once, is it gone?

I guess my main question about the Cornoa is if people get this like the flu, does it go away in some people like it does with the flu?

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I guess my main question about the Cornoa is if people get this like the flu, does it go away in some people like it does with the flu?

Yes, around 80% of known Coronavirus infections go away without serious complications of their own accord. No, previous experience with the flu probably means nothing. As far as we know, no one is immune to this, except maybe people who've had it.

This is like the flu in that it is most dangerous for people over 60 or with serious health problems. But the evidence right now is that it hits everybody quite a bit harder. If you're under 40 and healthy your personal risk of dying is probably well under 1%, but that could still be 5-20x the risk of the seasonal flu.

Same goes for hospitalization. Inside Hubei death rates were much higher at the start of the spike in cases because they ran out of doctors, hospital beds respirators, etc. to care for otherwise survivable cases. If you're part of the 80%, no problem, but if we get a big surge the people in the 20% could be in trouble.

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For the vast majority of people Covid-19 presents as a typical-to-bad cold. You get over it without anything more than rest and fluids. In some people however, especially the elderly or those with other lung problems, it attacks the lungs, and these people won't get better without major medical intervention (like a ventilatior), if that even is enough.

So this is somewhat analogous to the flu, in that most people will not be killed by it, but keep in mind that coronavirus and influenza are not closely related at all. A big difference is that the flu usually gets people much sicker when they get it. Like, if you've ever had the flu, you'd probably know; even if you didn't have to get hospitalized it would still have knocked you on your ass. Covid-19, as I said above, doesn't hit most people very hard at all, which is what makes it so dangerous; it can be spread easily from healthy kids and adults who barely know they are sick to at risk individuals who die from it.

Flu and cold viruses change very quickly, so even though you get immunity once you catch it, the next time it comes around it's different enough that you aren't immune to this year's strain.

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Kids are no more immune than anyone else.

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Kids aren't immune. They do seem to be less likely to get sick from this than adults, and are less likely to die if they do get sick. But no age group (or other identifiable group) is immune.

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EXACTLY!!!

Come on if kids were immune that would be a huge , huge , huge news item.

The cases tend to be less severe and less deadly, currently with a rate of 0 but of course that will go up a bit at some point. In some ways that is even more dangerous because those kids will not be bedridden so they will just keep spinning in circles infecting everything around them. I have to wonder if that could help explain the speed of transmission? Kids are an amazing vector for a virus if they are not forced to slow down due to feeling really sick. They don't take precautions, we stick them in rooms jammed side by side, they are down near the ground all the time.

Sometimes we have to protect the kids from the world. In this case we have to protect the world from the kids.

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Dr. Fauci, towards the end of the video, says that no child has been confirmed to have the virus and it is a mystery why no one under the age of 15 has contracted the virus.

https://youtu.be/7HGC-mRNTPo

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So lets cancel all schools and quarantine those less likely to get sick. Since most parents are working quarantine the kids with their grandparents who are the ones most likely to have severe reactions to the virus.

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