NH school districts tell students returning from Italy to stay home due to coronavirus concerns

Several school districts in New Hampshire have asked students and staff who traveled to Italy during February vacation to stay home due to coronavirus concerns.

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The Kearsarge, Winnacunnet and Timberlane districts were among those to announce that decision on Sunday. Kearsarge was asking students to stay home for the next week, and Winnacunnet and Timberlane were asking students to stay home for the next two weeks.

In all cases, students won't be returning to school until at least 14 days have passed since they left Italy.

Thirty-five Kearsarge Regional High School students visited Italy during a trip last week that also included stops in France and the United Kingdom. About 40 Winnacunnet High School and 11 Timberlane Regional High School students and staff were also on school-sponsored trips to Italy.

School leaders stressed that they made their decisions as a precaution, and there was nothing to suggest anyone on the trips was ill.

"Although COVID-19 is present in Italy, students were in the Lombardy and Veneto region of the country for a very brief period of time and there is no indication that the students were exposed to the virus," Kearsarge Superintendent Winfried Feneberg wrote in a statement.

The districts were also asking any students or faculty who traveled independently to countries where the threat of coronavirus has been raised to stay home until 14 days have passed.

School leaders said students would be able to complete some schoolwork remotely.

"We are utilizing Google Classrooms, Skype, Facetime and a bevy of other tools to ensure that the students who are returning from abroad are able to continue their studies with as minimal an impact as possible," Feneberg said in the statement.

There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Hampshire, but on Sunday state health officials said a person who recently returned from Italy was being tested for the illness.

Rhode Island on Sunday announced its first presumptive positive case of the coronavirus. The person traveled to Italy in mid-February.

Meanwhile, authorities in Italy announced that the number of people infected in the country soared 50% to 1,694 in just 24 hours, and five more people had died, bringing the death toll there to 34. The death toll worldwide reached 3,000.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

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