Lawyer for St. Louis County coronavirus patient's relatives says they were not told to quarantine
Coronavirus prevention
A worker cleans a handrail at the Gateway Transportation Center in
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County Executive Page provides an update
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Coronavirus prevention
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In a timeline of events, attorney
"These poor people are being pilloried and vilified," he said, referring to the family of the woman. "They were being proactive. They were trying to deal with this problem."
The father and his daughter left the dance and returned home Saturday night when they learned of the older daughter's diagnosis. The family hasn't left the house since, according to Bruntrager.
At a news conference on Monday, Page repeated that a family quarantine had been issued verbally.
"All of the family as part of this communication were given instructions to stay at home," Page said.
County co-health director Spring Schmidt said she was "not going to respond specifically to their comments or the way they are sort of characterizing. I am comfortable with the way that the staff engaged with the family. There was a significant amount of contact on both sides."
The county will be reviewing its quarantine policies and procedures, Page said.
"I don't believe that dwelling on this accomplishes anything else other than to learn that a quarantine is serious," Page said.
Anger and concern rippled across the
One
"How selfish can you be to just blow off the quarantine order and, of all things, go to a father-daughter dance exposing countless people to this deadly virus?" asked
Warren said he and his wife,
Page said that county health officials gave the same instructions to the
The woman diagnosed with coronavirus, who attends
She had no symptoms until Thursday, according to Bruntrager's timeline, when she woke up with a headache and a mild sore throat but no fever. The family called a doctor friend who recommended calling the
When the woman woke up Friday with a sore throat, slight chest pains and shortness of breath, her mother called a county communicable disease staffer at
At Mercy, staff took nasal swabs, throat swabs, blood, saliva, urine and a chest X-ray. A doctor told them, "My gut feeling is that I don't think she has it." The doctor said all her tests looked good and she had no fever, but they would test for coronavirus because she had been in
They left, with instructions that the woman stay in respiratory isolation and wear a mask when interacting with people.
It wasn't until Sunday when health officials sat the family down and told them what to do, Bruntrager said.
Bruntrager complained about the way the family is being treated, misinformation that has been released about the family and the way the virus is being handled by officials. "To me, it absolutely exemplifies the ineptitude of how this is being handled," he said.
A letter Sunday to the family from Schmidt said the county was "authorized" to impose a quarantine on the family under monitoring from the health department, and said the letter served as "formal notification ... Please conduct yourself accordingly."
Page said on Monday officials were convinced the family had remained home after learning about the positive test on Saturday night, and that a formal quarantine was not needed.
Officials did not identify the infected patient nor her family members, sending thousands of people to find out what they could from back channels through texts and social media. The 375 calls for information to the county health department Monday overwhelmed its call center, officials said.
"She doesn't know who it is," he said. "They haven't told people who it is, according to her. I'd just want to know if they were at the same table. Was this someone who was at my daughter's table, or someone kind of at the back of the room?"
'A hospital-grade cleaning'
In addition to the dance, the coronavirus patient's younger sister attended classes at
The school will be closed for the week and students will return
"We also have commissioned a hospital-grade cleaning of the school which will take place this week," reads a statement sent to parents Monday. "This involves using special cleaning products and disinfecting every surface."
County officials told school leaders that anyone who was in contact with asymptomatic family members does not need to take any special precautions, according to the statement.
The Ritz-Carlton in
County and state health officials have not released detailed information about other places where the family members have gone, leaving some organizations to assess risk to their communities and notify people who may be interested.
A manager at Deer Creek Coffee found out Sunday that the father whose family was supposed to be quarantined visited the shop on Saturday morning.
"The family called to let us know," said
"Disinfectant and bleach, a thorough cleaning," McCarty said. "There is no cleaner surface right now than at Deer Creek Coffee. I can promise you that."
The head of
The family who lives at that house includes children who attend Villa and Burroughs.
"The likelihood of any of the Burroughs students contracting the virus is extraordinarily low,"
Schmidt said on Monday the
"Neither the father nor the younger daughter are symptomatic in any way, so anyone else's exposure to them, particularly for brief periods of time, is not really of particular concern to the
Testing can only be done when patients show symptoms, Page said.
A staff member at
Four residents of
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