After infecting almost every state surrounding Missouri, the coronavirus hit St. Louis.

A college student, who was studying abroad in Italy, came home early with a fever. She called the coronavirus hotline because she was experiencing symptoms. They told the family to self-quarantine themselves at home for a week in order to make sure it doesn’t spread if she does have the coronavirus.

The young woman followed protocol; however, her father didn’t and took his other daughter to a father-daughter dance at Villa Duchesne. After some dancing and chatting, they were notified that the older sister did in fact have a case of the coronavirus and left the dance early.

The school was cancelled for the rest of the week out of caution because of the possible exposure to the disease. The school is also under a “hospital grade-cleaning.”

While the family is getting major backlash from their actions, their attorney claims that they were never told to self-quarantine in the first place.

Even though there is a scare of the coronavirus spreading in Missouri, it is nothing compared to Italy. The country is so infected that they closed their borders over the weekend. Even though the country is an ocean away, it still affects people we know.

2018 alum Kaitlyn Bross and 2017 alum Brad Sievers were both studying abroad in Italy last month. Bross is home now but had to leave immediately from Munich when her program got cancelled. She could not say goodbye to the city and her host mother, and she had to leave half of her belongings in Italy.

“At home now, I am dealing with the same anxiety I see in most people. I am lucky enough to have gotten my experience in Florence, and I am now just taking my classes online,” Bross said.

There wasn’t much worry about the coronavirus until Bross was flown back to the United States with barely any notice. The cases dramatically grew while Bross was away and now her host family and Italian pen pal are in quarantine, working and taking classes at home.

Sievers has been in Europe for nine weeks and will stay there for ten more weeks. Currently he is in Edinburgh, Scotland but will go to Edinburgh, Glasgow this week. The coronavirus has not drastically impacted his trip, and he is luckily still happy and healthy while exploring the foreign lands.

While Scotland hasn’t been hit hard by the virus, other countries in Europe have been. China seems to be beginning to recover after the pandemic broke out there; however, one third of the population has psychological distress from the outbreak.

In addition to Italy, countries in South America are beginning to shut down their borders. Venezuela is still struggling economically, so many citizens are still attempting to flee. Prior to the outbreak, Colombia had been praised for its open arms, but it now must enforce a stricter migration policy.

“In addition to hand-washing stations, Colombian officials have set up heat-seeking cameras along the border to detect migrants with fevers,” OZY reports.

On Friday, President Donald Trump announced a national emergency because of the coronavirus. Also last week, all K-12 public schools, state colleges and technical colleges were closed till the end of March. Most of them are providing online classes.

Along with the public schools, the Archdiocese of St. Louis closed all archdiocesan private schools until April 6, effective Wednesday. While all the schools are empty, deep cleanings will occur. Similar measures have been taken across the nation: 29 out of the 50 states closed every school in their borders.

With everyone staying in the comfort of his or her home, stocks have dropped another ten percent on Monday. Many shareholders are scrambling to figure out what is the best move for their accounts.

People are also scrambling to stores to stock up. The hand sanitizer, toilet paper and cleansing wipes are almost completely gone in every store.  Many places, such as Walmart and Target, are restricting customers to buy two packages of toilet paper per trip in order to allow more people to purchase them.

Many of the victims who are catching the coronavirus are about 70 years old, as they are more vulnerable due to their weaker immune systems. In addition to known cases, the virus may be spreading so much because people can have the coronavirus without knowing it; symptoms can be hidden for days to a week.

Because of this, people are being self-quarantined for 14 days if they know someone who might have the coronavirus or if they have traveled, especially if they traveled in a plane or out of the country. This lessens the risk of the coronavirus spreading even more than it has. Trump is also pushing to prevent more than ten people gathering in a public area together in order to stop the spread.

The coronavirus is frightening and new, but vaccines are currently being tested to stop the spread and save lives. Make sure to stay home, wash your hands daily and avoid sharing food and drinks in order to stay healthy.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/09/coronavirus-quarantine-school-dance/

https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-287963/

https://fox8.com/news/list-states-that-have-closed-all-schools-due-to-coronavirus/

https://www.thestate.com/news/coronavirus/article241209451.html