William Penn Charter School Chinese exchange student who had exhibited signs of a respiratory illness a week after arriving from China tested negative for coronavirus, school officials announced Tuesday.
The results of the diagnostic test came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The student was part of a group of 18 high school students and three adults that came from China to visit the school.
Sharon Sexton, a spokesperson for the school said that the visiting group had a connecting flight in Wuhan the Chinese city where the outbreak began, on the way to New York earlier this month.
James Garrow, a spokesperson for the city’s health department infomed that the Philadelphia Department of Public Health was notified of the potential case on Friday. The student was attended in Montgomery County where health officials sent samples to the state for testing.
The symptoms of coronavirus are similar to respiratory viral infections or the influenza virus. That is, cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Coronavirus symptoms are mostly respiratory but without the muscle pains and fatigue common with the flu.
End of the Chinese exchange program
In a letter sent to parents, the Darryl J. Ford, Head of Penn Charter notified them the closure of the exchange program. He justified his decisión because of parent and student concern, the disruption to the educational program and uncertainty about when the school will know the test results.
“We regret that this program has been complicated, and now terminated, because of events that were beyond the control of the people who were excited for all the learning that this cultural exchange had promised,” Ford wrote.
New Jersey case also tested negative
New Jersey health officials had been conducting tests to determine if a patient has the deadly virus. Fortunately results conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were negative, according to the state Department of Health.
.The outbreak of the new coronavirus is intensifying, with the death toll reaching 106 in China and thousands more infected.
So far there have been five confirmed cases in the United States and more than 100 additional people in 26 states are being tested for the disease.
It is believed that the new form of the coronavirus spread from a seafood market in Wuhan, where live animals are often sold in close contact with others, like dogs, hares, raccoons and civets.
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