R.I. detects state’s first coronavirus cases in residents who traveled to Italy

Two residents of Rhode Island back from a trip to Italy have tested positive for coronavirus and a third is undergoing testing, health officials announced Sunday.

© Provided by Boston Herald Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, right, and R.I. Director of Health Nicole Alexander-Scott, behind left, face reporters during a news conference, Sunday, March 1, 2020, in Providence, R.I. The two took questions on what officials described as the state's first presumptive positive case of coronavirus. Officials said the person is in their 40s and had traveled to Italy in February of 2020. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The second and potentially third cases were announced just hours after Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo urged calm during an afternoon press conference.

“There is no need for panic, there is no need to be frightened,” Raimondo said, calling the general level of risk in Rhode Island low.

A man in his 40s contracted the virus after traveling to Italy in mid-February, prompting dozens of people to be self-quarantined and the Catholic High School that organized the trip to close while it’s being sanitized, the Rhode Island Department of Health said in a statement.

Hours later, the state Department of Health released another statement saying that a teenage girl from the trip had tested positive, and a third person, a woman in her 30s, is undergoing tests.

Saint Raphael Academy, a Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Catholic high school located on the Massachusetts border, posted an online statement Sunday afternoon that said students and chaperones who were on the trip to Europe will be out of school until March 9.

“All 38 of the people who went on this trip will be self-monitoring for symptoms at home for 14 days with public health supervision,” the state Department of Health’s second statement said. “They have been instructed to not go to school or work and to remain at home for these 14 days.”

“All three people went on the same trip to Italy,” Dr. Nichole Alexander-Scott, the state’s director of health, said in the statement. “This is precisely why we are being so aggressive in identifying contacts, ensuring monitoring, and testing people who are symptomatic.”

Rhode Island’s announcement marks the first cases in New England, after Boston announced last month a UMass Boston student who traveled from China had the virus. Last week, Massachusetts officials said 34 people are under self-quarantine in Boston, and that over 600 people statewide had been quarantined since health officials starting tracking the virus.

State agencies did not respond to requests for comment Sunday, although officials last week said they are ramping up preparations for the coronavirus. Gov. Charlie Baker is expected to present a “fully formulated” picture of the state’s response plan early this week.

Up in New Hampshire, a school district chief on Sunday asked 35 high school students and staff who recently traveled to Italy and France to self-quarantine until next Monday,  although there is “no indication” the students were exposed to the virus.

“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,” Winfried Feneberg, Kearsarge Regional School District superintendent said Sunday.