Shawsheen Tech To Close One Week: Coronavirus In Massachusetts

BILLERICA, MA — Shawsheen Valley Technical High School will be closed next week, the school announced Friday. The closure will begin Monday, March 16, as part of an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus through social distancing. The entire facility will be cleaned and disinfected during the closure, the school announced.

There will be no extra-curricular events or activities after school Friday or during the closure.

There are no known cases of the new coronavirus in the school community, Principal Jessica Cook noted in the announcement.

"We recognize that that the closing of school can pose struggles for some students/families experiencing economic hardship. We encourage families with conerns about the impact of the closure to reach out to my office regarding assistance that may be available during this time," Cook wrote.

The school is not assigning any school-work during the closure. Students in co-ops are not required to report to tco-op. They can make the decision in communication with their co-op employers on whether they will report to work next week.

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Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

The disease, which apparently originated in animals, is now transferring from person to person, although the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Its symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and many patients develop pneumonia. There is as yet no vaccine against COVID-19 it and no antiviral treatment.

According to the CDC, the best way of preventing the disease is to avoid close contact with people who are sick, to avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, to wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and to use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.

To avoid spreading any respiratory illness, the CDC recommends staying at home when you are sick, covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and throwing the tissue in the trash, cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.