Trying week for Wakefield Country Day

School back to normal following coronavirus concerns

Everybody is welcoming the fact that classes have resumed at the Huntly campus of Wakefield Country Day School, which had taken precautions over the looming coronavirus disease threat by closing the school for the latter half of last week.

It wouldn’t be surprising if there are similar school closures statewide or even close by as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the commonwealth.

“We have no reported illnesses and classes are in session,” WCDS Head of School Jessica Lindstrom told the News first thing Monday, having had follow-up correspondence with the regional health department over the weekend.

“With all of our deep cleaning we may be the most disinfected/clean school in the county right now!” she quipped.

WCDS students, faculty and friends had traveled to northern Italy late last month, and upon days of their arrival the region became one of the world’s high-risk areas for coronavirus transmission. Leaving almost immediately for safer environs — and arriving back in the United States last Monday — Lindstrom was aware of revised reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advising anyone who had been in Italy to self-quarantine for 14 days.

“Thus, I contacted all families of travelers immediately, and told them to stay home and keep siblings home as well as an extra precaution, and made the decision to close WCDS for the duration of the week to do another deep cleaning which we had just done last week to get rid of flu germs,” she explained.

Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District Director Dr. Wade Kartchner added last Wednesday that the school was correct in having the traveling students and faculty self-quarantine for two weeks.

“Our advice is those kids need to stay at home for 14 days,” the doctor said, and that period began once the 24 WCDS travelers departed northern Italy on Feb. 25th. “That’s where to start the clock.”

But then this past weekend Lindstrom realized the CDC guidelines did not comply with WCDS travelers after all, albeit in retrospect it was better for the school of 131 students and 36 staff to be safe than sorry.

“[I]t was a relief to hear from doctors and the CDC that the self–quarantine did not even apply to us since our travelers had left Italy before March 1 — but I am glad I was being cautious and proactive at this time,” she said.

In the meantime, Lindstrom assured: “All of our recent travelers both to Europe and to places around the US still remain healthy.”

WCDS students, faculty and friends had traveled to northern Italy late last month, and upon days of their arrival the region became one of the world’s high-risk areas for coronavirus transmission.