Hundreds of students at a high school in Virginia called in sick after contracting flu-like symptoms.
Out of a student body of 2,100, “a number” tested positive for influenza, and 670 students attending Stafford High School were absent on Monday, school officials said, according to NBC Washington. On Friday, over half of the student body reported flu-like symptoms, leading to a quick cancellation of sports events and school activities in an effort to combat the spread.
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The school was deep cleaned and disinfected over the weekend, per school officials. “We will continue to clean vigorously each day until attendance returns to normal,” said Stafford High School spokeswoman Sandra Osborn.
The Virginia Department of Health did not recommend a school closure, encouraging further mitigation measures instead.
“At this time, the VDH recommends keeping our schools open and continuing our mitigation measures. At the advice of the health department, we are canceling all after school sports and activities through Tuesday at Stafford High School only,” the Stafford High School said on its Facebook page Monday. “This will help contain the spread of the illness to visiting schools. Our travel students are encouraged to follow strict mitigation strategies when coming to or from Stafford High School. We will re-evaluate activities later this week.”
The stunning number of absences comes amid an especially severe flu season, a major turnaround since cases had all but disappeared during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals are reporting a shortage of beds across the country amid an influx of patients with respiratory illnesses, according to ABC News. Patients with respiratory illnesses fill an estimated 70% of the United States’s 40,000 available hospital beds.
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“[Various respiratory] viruses are all in play on top of SARS-CoV-2, and now the increasing amounts of influenza, which we had feared was coming in like a lion this year, has arrived,” Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, professor of pediatric infectious disease and microbiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told ABC News.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Stafford High School for further comment.
