Schools Shut in Seattle Area as Coronavirus Spreads
New York, Illinois and other states report new cases as tech companies in Seattle urge employees to work from home
A suburban Seattle school district launched the farthest-reaching school closures in the U.S. Thursday in an attempt to contain the coronavirus, directing more than 23,500 students to stay home for up to two weeks in a last-resort step that districts across the country are considering.
The number of deaths in Washington state rose to 11 Thursday and confirmed cases jumped to 70 from 39 a day earlier, prompting companies including Microsoft Corp., Amazon Inc. and Facebook Inc. to encourage employees in the region to work from home. Ten of those fatalities have been in King County, where Seattle is located.
As new coronavirus cases continued to climb globally, some health officials warned it would be impossible to fully contain the pathogen now that infections are spreading within many communities.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee encouraged residents and organizations to give “serious consideration” to canceling or postponing large events. He also directed state insurance providers to waive copays and deductibles for anyone qualified for testing for the virus, and directed the state’s labor department to ensure compensation for health-care workers and first responders who are quarantined.
“We are attempting to do everything humanly possible to slow the spread of this virus,” Mr. Inslee said.
North of Seattle, Northshore School District said it would close its 33 campuses for up to 14 days and that its students would continue their lessons online.
The decision, which officials said came after a parent at an elementary school tested positive for the virus, mirrors the actions of schools in Hong Kong, mainland China and Italy among other affected countries. Two smaller school districts in New York state—Hastings-on-Hudson Unified Free School District and Mount Vernon City School District—also announced closures.
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The Northshore district, which straddles two counties hard-hit by the virus, King and Snohomish, reported Wednesday that the majority of its schools have been affected by direct and indirect exposure to the virus. Numerous calls and emails came from parents and staff who decided to self-quarantine or keep their children home. On Wednesday, its student absentee rate was 20%, the district said.
“The time has come for our district community to make an important shift,” said Michelle Reid, Northshore’s superintendent, in a letter to families. “We want to do our part to slow the spread of this coronavirus.”
The district said it has staff members that fall into the high-risk categories—including over 16%, or at least 500, who are age 60 and over. Some others have weakened immunity or are pregnant.
Some teachers began posting homework assignments rather than holding classes online. “All the teachers are saying this is my first attempt at remote learning so please be patient,” said Wendy Reynolds of Kenmore, Wash., who has a 10th-grader in the Northshore District.
Students have received training on the online platform, officials said. The district is arranging for those who don’t have a digital device to get a loaner. Those without Wi-Fi can receive loaner hot spots, officials said.
Grace Jurado, president of the Northshore Council PTSA, which represents all PTAs in the district, said feelings are mixed about the closure.
“We have some people who are just wowed, and think our superintendent’s forward thinking to do this is great,” she said. “But the other side says, ‘I have a job, what am I going to do about my kids? I didn’t sign up to do homeschool.’”
Ms. Jurado said, personally, she believes that “panic creates more panic” but understands the district’s action as not wanting to spread the virus. “You do at one point have to make it stop.”
Robin Zaback of Bothell, Wash., who has a fourth-grader and seventh-grader in the district, said there were so many schools with staff or students who had been connected in some way to people with the virus that she understood the decision to close.
“I’m lucky I’m a stay-at-home mom, but most of my friends are not. They are really struggling and scrambling to figure out what they’re going to do,” Ms. Zaback said.
At first her children were excited about school being closed.
“They thought they could play Fortnite all day,” she said. “That’s not the case.”
Seattle resident Ashley Allman wasn’t worried about her two sons, whose schools weren’t shut down, being at school. “Unless somebody is confirmed to have the coronavirus, it doesn’t feel super urgent to me at this point,” she said.
Facebook closed one of its 18 Seattle offices Wednesday night after a contract worker there was diagnosed with the virus. The roughly 150 people at that location must do their jobs from home until March 31, per guidance from county officials, the company said. Facebook also encouraged all of its 5,000 employees in the area to work remotely through that date.
Amazon asked many of its Seattle-area employees to work from home until the end of March. On Tuesday, an employee at the company’s Seattle headquarters tested positive. Microsoft told employees at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters, as well as at its San Francisco Bay Area offices, that those who are able to work from home should do so.
Roads are less busy and toilet paper and hand sanitizer are sold out in local stores, said Cody Glad, 35, who manages a gym about a mile away from the King County nursing facility where a number of residents have died or fallen ill with the coronavirus.
At the gym, fewer members have worked out this week than usual. “Virtually every member has had some kind of question about what steps we’ve taken,” Mr. Glad said. He said the gym has added wipes, increased nightly cleaning and encouraged members who feel sick to stay home.
As the new virus tested local systems and preparedness, the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a roughly $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to combat the infection’s spread. President Trump is expected to sign the agreement, which includes funding for research efforts to develop a vaccine, allocates money to state and local governments to battle the outbreak and sends dollars overseas to assist response efforts.
Across the U.S., the number of cases Thursday rose to 215, and the death total reached 12, according to data from Johns Hopkins University on Thursday evening. Tennessee and Nevada reported their first cases; both patients had been traveling domestically. Officials in Harris County, Texas, announced two new cases outside of Houston, while Florida and Illinois each announced one additional case.
The number of confirmed diagnoses in New York rose to 22, including two new ones in New York City. And San Francisco officials announced the city’s first confirmed cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which has pneumonialike symptoms including fever and coughing.
While many of these cases are linked to travel to affected countries, a growing number in certain parts of the country is linked to what is known as community transmission.
The evidence of community transmission suggests there are more people, without showing symptoms, who are spreading the virus than health officials initially realized, said Raina MacIntyre, head of the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
“I don’t think we’re at the peak. I think we’re at the beginning of the increase,” Ms. McIntyre said, noting that it could take up to two weeks for infected people to start showing symptoms. “There’s going to be some time delay in seeing the epidemic unfold.”
Canada reported late Thursday its first case of community transmission of the coronavirus epidemic, in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia, area. British Columbia’s chief medical officer, Bonnie Henry, said officials were trying to determine how the individual, a woman in her 50s, might have picked up the infection. Further, Dr. Henry said there were seven other new cases in the West Coast province.
Globally, there were 97,879 confirmed cases of the virus, with 3,348 deaths, as of Thursday evening, according to Johns Hopkins. In China, where the epidemic began late last year, authorities reported 139 new cases, up from 119 Wednesday.
Infections outside of China have been outpacing infections inside, with the number of cases rising rapidly in South Korea, Iran, France and Italy.
In Italy, home to the worst coronavirus outbreak outside Asia, the number of cases rose to 3,858, up 25% from 3,089 on Wednesday. Of those, 148 had died by Thursday, up from a total of 107 deaths by Wednesday, and 414 had fully recovered.
On Wednesday, Italy’s government ordered all schools in the country to close until March 15. It also unveiled other measures, including spectator-free soccer matches and bans on other public gatherings, including in theaters, until April 3.
Efforts to contain the virus have already forced airlines to cancel flights, public gatherings to be suspended and business conferences to be postponed, presenting a significant challenge to global economic growth.