BELLINGHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Winter break is now over for thousands of students across New England, and many of them are returning from trips abroad.
Now, at least one Massachusetts school district is asking anyone who traveled to a region where coronavirus is present to self-quarantine.
Bellingham Public Schools is asking a group of students and staff to stay home this week after recent travel to countries where coronavirus is actively spreading.
In a statement to the community, BPS said the school system is "working diligently to monitor documented cases of the flu (and other viruses should they arise)."
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It said at the recommendation of Bellingham Board of Health, it was requesting any students and staff who "traveled to areas of the world in which the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was present" to "stay home from school next week."
The town of Bellingham has also provided residents an information sheet about COVID-19, which you can find here.
The direction from BPS comes as Rhode Island's Department of Health has identified the state's first "presumptive" case of coronavirus in a person in their 40s who recently traveled to Italy.
According to the World Health Organization, there are now more than 85,000 cases confirmed across the world. More than 79,000 of those are in China.
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