Southwest closes building for cleaning
Says 2 students exposed to coronavirus patient
Two students at Southwest Tennessee Community College were exposed to a patient who has coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in Shelby County during clinical rotations at Baptist Memorial Hospital, the college announced Monday night.
Before the students learned of their exposure after the coronavirus patient was tested, they attended classes in the Allied Health Building, the college said in an email.
In a statement shared later Monday evening, the college said that the students were in the building March 4-6, the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before they learned of their exposure. The students are studying radiologic technology.
Because of this, the college is closing the Allied Health Building through March 18, the last day of the students’ 14-day quarantine, to allow time for a deep cleaning, particularly focusing on radiologic technology classrooms, laboratories and equipment.
Southwest students are on spring break this week, March 9-15.
Southwest said the risk of the spread of infection to other students as a result of the students attending classes after exposure to the coronavirus patient “low,” but that they are temporarily closing the building for cleaning “out of the abundance of caution.”
This statement aligns with what the Shelby County Health Department said at a Monday afternoon news conference about a Shelby County Schools employee who was another one of the 70 instructed by the health department to quarantine.
The individuals in quarantine are asymptomatic and are asked to stay at home for 14 days from the day of contact with the patient, per the health department. The step is taken in effort to contain potential community spread, Alisa Haushalter, director of the Shelby County Health Department, said on Monday at a press conference about the Shelby County Schools employee.
“Even if (those in quarantine) did go back to work, they pose no risk to the public whatsoever,” Haushalter said at the Monday press conference.
SCS kept schools open, but said that they will be deep-cleaning the schools during spring break next week.
Only the one patient, currently located at Baptist, has been confirmed to have coronavirus in Shelby County. That case was confirmed by officials Sunday, with the patient only identified as a non-elderly adult who had recently traveled to another state.
None of the quarantined have been tested for novel coronavirus, Haushalter said. If they show symptoms, they will be tested, she said. Of the 70 quarantined, most of them are in Tennessee and some are in Mississippi. She did not give more specifics.
The Commercial Appeal had heard an unconfirmed report of a coronavirus patient at a Baptist facility on March 4. On that day, local health officials and a Baptist representative would not substantiate it. Baptist referred questions on March 4 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which did not respond to requests for comment.
At the Sunday news conference announcing Memphis’ first coronavirus patient, officials said the coronavirus case at Baptist had been confirmed through a state lab test late Saturday. They would not confirm if the patient currently at Baptist was the same one that The Commercial Appeal had asked about on March 4.
“There have been a number of false claims in various hospitals around the city that I have certainly heard,” Threlkeld said at the Sunday conference. “It’s a little bit premature to release the details about this particular patient.”
The patient’s specimen was delivered to Nashville for testing Friday, officials said at the Sunday news conference, and the case was confirmed Saturday afternoon.
The patient was “put into isolation very quickly,” Dr. Steve Threlkeld, co-director of the infection control program at Baptist Memorial Heath Care, said in a news conference Monday.
“There was very little problem in this case,” Threlkeld said. “The problem comes nationally when there are more people presenting. That’s exactly why we’re trying to ramp over to some extra strategies.”
Southwest Tennessee Community College and other universities have created updating web pages, giving faculty, staff, students and their families the latest information on the virus and the university responses.
Southwest’s site includes its “Pandemic Preparedness Plan” and other preparation and prevention guidelines. The CDC has advised that institutions of higher education consider postponing or canceling current and upcoming foreign exchange programs. Based on this guidance, the college announced Wednesday that it would cancel trips to London and Paris scheduled for March 7-15.
Commercial Appeal reporters Samuel Hardiman, Laura Testino and Daniel Connolly contributed to this article.
Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine. burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.