January 28, 2020
A William Penn Charter School exchange student who fell ill last week after arriving from China does not have the novel coronavirus, school officials announced Tuesday.
A diagnostic test conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came back negative. The student had been quarantined with a chaperone since falling ill, but has been feeling better, according to the East Falls prep school.
The student is among a group that arrived last week at Penn Charter for a two-week exchange program. The group of 18 students and three chaperones, had caught a connecting flight in Wuhan, China, the site of the outbreak, en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Penn Charter officials have canceled the exchange program in light of concerns about the coronavirus.
"We regret that this program has been complicated, and now terminated, because of events that were beyond the control of the people who were excited for all the learning that this cultural exchange had promised," Head of School Darryl J. Ford wrote in an email to parents on Monday night.
