CLEVELAND, Ohio — Four Hawken School students who traveled last week to a conference in Washington, D.C., with a man who has tested positive for coronavirus are self-quarantined, according to the school.
The students, who attend Hawken’s Upper School campus in Gates Mills, traveled to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on the same bus with an employee of the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland. The man was one of three Cuyahoga County patients informed Monday of a positive test for the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.
The students are being monitored for fever and respiratory symptoms, according to a letter from Headmaster D. Scott Looney emailed to parents late Monday evening.
None of the parents or siblings of the students who traveled on the bus were advised to self-quarantine, according to a letter.
“We will be working with the students to support their remaining coursework this week as we head into spring break,” Looney wrote. Hawken students are scheduled to be on spring break for two weeks, starting March 14.
Students from a number of other schools, including Fuchs Mizrachi and the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood also attended the conference, which ran March 1-3.
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In an email Rabbi Avery Joel, head of school at Fuchs Mizrachi School, sent to the families of students, he said some students had been in close contact with one of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 and that those students had been asked to self-quarantine until March 17, according to Cleveland Jewish News.
A Jewish Education Center of Cleveland staff person has tested positive for the coronavirus. The center is located in Cleveland Heights.
There are now four confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the 18,000 AIPAC attendees: one in Cuyahoga County, one in Los Angeles and two from New York.
Last week, AIPAC attendees were told to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which calls for those who are feeling sick to stay home and to notify a health care provider if they’re experiencing symptoms.
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COVID-19 is a respiratory illness with symptoms similar to those of the flu — fever, cough and shortness of breath — that has sickened thousands and killed 3,800 in China, according to the World Health Organization. There is not yet a vaccine for COVID-19, nor are there any medications approved to treat it, according to the CDC.
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