Coronavirus concern for incoming student

[NurseAlice]

Hey guys... I have a major concern that my administration just brought to my attention. We have a student who will be arriving from Hong Kong next Thursday. There have been 8 confirmed cases of the Corona virus in Hong Kong. The student themselves has not been confirmed to have the disease, but given the recent news, we are all very concerned about whether or not to accept this student. I have emailed my lead nurse as well as our health department leader and am awaiting their response. Can we even accept medical clearance from a doctor and allow them to come to our school? I'm so nervous because I have absolutely no experience in dealing with this sort of thing. Any advice would be appreciated. I am just very concerned about the safety of our students and staff.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

On 1/31/2020 at 9:16 AM, tnbutterfly - Mary said:

The WHO declared a Global Health Emergency yesterday afternoon.

There has been a confirmed case in the US of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Ugh...

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

18 hours ago, ruby_jane said:

Remember back to Ebola? We were instructed to take the temperature of any student coming from the affected area and ask a few health questions that were blessed by the CDC. We may start doing this again. But I haven't been told to...

We may move to the following guidance which is based on CDC recommendations for physicians and hospitals:

If a student presents with a fever and one or more lower respiratory symptoms (cough, SOB); and there is evidence of international travel by any close family member within the last 21 days, the student will be sent home and will require a doctor's clearance to return to school.

[bluebonnetrn, BSN, RN]

Declaring it a global health emergency is just about getting funding to deal with the outbreak.

[tining, BSN, RN]

Went from 10,000 cases in China to 17,000 over the weekend.