LOUDON Co., Va. - Loudoun County, one of Virginia’s largest school districts has closed Thursday and plans to stay closed until March 20.
The county has over 84,000 students. In a release sent out by the school Superintendent Eric Williams, it states:
"I sincerely apologize for sending you a message regarding school closure with minimal time to make adjustments; however, given the rapidly evolving situation with the COVID-19 virus, Loudoun County Public Schools are closed today, Thursday, March 12th through Friday, March 20th. All activities are also canceled at this time. Administrative Offices will open at twelve today with regular office hours on other days during the school closure."
"As you may know, the World Health Organization declared the novel Coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic yesterday, travel between the United States and Europe was recently suspended, and some events and large gatherings have been postponed or cancelled in our region, state, and nation. Loudoun County has experienced at least one presumptive positive case of COVID-19. While Loudoun County has not experienced the extent of presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 as some other areas within our nation or globally and has not had cases that meet the definition of community transmission, we are making this decision out of an abundance of caution. We plan to announce next steps by the end of next week."
Officials say they are unaware of any presumptive positive cases of individuals connected to schools, however, schools will be thoroughly cleaned before they reopen.
This closing comes a day after the Alexandria Health Department announced that an Alexandria resident tested “presumptive positive” for coronavirus.
To read to full release, click here.
