Third Doncaster school in coronavirus alert to pupils and parents following Italian trip

McAuley Catholic High School in Cantley has become the third Doncaster school to notify parents following on from Don Valley Academy and Hall Cross Academy.

Pupils from all three schools attended separate holidays in Italy over the February half-term.

Hall Cross has ordered pupils who attended the trip to the Italian ski resort of Bormio to stop at home and self isolate for 14 days while Don Valley has said that pupils on their trip didn’t visit the affected areas of Italy.

McAuley has also stated that pupils and staff on their trip were also not in the areas worst hit by the virus – but have told those who attended to be alert to symptoms.

A letter to parents said: “As you may be aware, there has been an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in Northern Italy.

“At this time, there have been no reported cases in the region we stayed in or travelled through and we have no reason to think that students have been exposed to the virus.

“However, Government advice now states that anyone returning from Northern Italy showing flu like symptoms should self isolate and seek guidance from the NHS on 111.

“The UK’s Chief Medical Officer maintains that the risk to individuals is low.”

“For information, we stayed in Folgarida in Trento region and travelled via Austria, Germany and France.

“Once again, we have no reason to believe that any students have been exposed to any carriers of the virus and we were a number of hours travel time from the affected regions.”

Italy has the largest number of confirmed cases in Europe.

It raised that total on Tuesday to 283 and seven people have died.

For the next two weeks, 50,000 residents in a number of Italian towns will not be able to leave without special permission although the Italian Prime Minister says the country is still open to tourists.

New cases have now been reported in Tuscany and Sicily.