Coronavirus in US: Largest county in Georgia closes all schools
Atlanta-area school district employee tests positive for virus, forcing closures 'to clean and sanitise'
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Your support makes all the difference.Officials in Georgia have ordered all Fulton County schools and school offices to close on Tuesday after an employee was confirmed to be infected with coronavirus.
Several schools were dismissed early on Monday after the employee's positive diagnosis was announced.
More than 1 million people live in Fulton County, and roughly 94,000 children attend more than 100 schools in the county.
The separate Atlanta Public School District has not announced closures.
Fulton County officials said that the closures "will allow us to clean and sanitise affected schools as well as share additional details of our ongoing plan."
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is scheduled to address the state in a press conference this afternoon.
The closures follow the state's announcement of 11 Covid-19 cases in the state. None of the patients are related and all have been hospitalised. Three cases are in Fulton County.
Schools in Atlanta - which houses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - remain open while the system "remains in close communication with the Fulton County Board of Health and other public health officials to make informed operational decisions," according to a statement.
The Georgia coronavirus cases join nearly 600 in the US. Twenty-two people in the country have died following an outbreak of the flu-like respiratory virus, as global illnesses have spiked to more than 113,000 in roughly 100 countries.
Nearly 4,000 people have died.
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