Students across Virginia will not be at school for at least the next two weeks.
Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday announced that all K-12 schools would be closed starting Monday. There have been 30 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in the commonwealth as of the announcement.
“I recognize this will pose a hardship on many families, but closing our schools for two weeks will not only give our staff time to clean and disinfect school facilities, it will help slow the spread of this virus,” Northam said in a press release.
According to Atif Qarni, the commonwealth’s secretary of education, Virginia is looking into options for providing students who receive free and reduced-price lunches free meals while schools are shut down.
“We recognize this decision places burdens on many of our parents and families, especially for those who rely on school nutrition programs for access to healthy food for their children,” Qarni said in the press release. “Virginia will continue to explore and implement innovative approaches to provide meals to students who qualify for free and reduced lunch during this closure.”
The school closures follow the governor declaring a state of emergency on Thursday. Virginia joins Ohio, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Michigan, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia in closing schools.
There have been almost 1,900 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States since the pandemic began. Of those, there have been 41 deaths. President Trump declared a national emergency because of the outbreak.
