More than 1,200 students were absent Wednesday after a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness swept through an Alabama school district.
More than half the infected children came from a single school, which was shut down through the remainder of the week so that the state Department of Public Health could investigate how the virus overtook its student body.
“Due to the amount of staff and students who are absent, the number who are experiencing symptoms, and in an effort to help contain the contagion, we unfortunately need to shut the building down,” Baldwin County Public Schools Superintendent Eddie Tyler said in a letter to parents.
“While out, we will be conducting a deep cleaning of the school so when students return next week, it will be sanitized to the fullest extent.”
Health officials have not determined what virus has run rampant through the hallways of at least four district schools, referring to it only as a “gastrointestinal outbreak.”
Sick students and staff have suffered nausea and vomiting, and came down with the illness fast.
Fairhope West Elementary was hit especially hard, school sources told News 5.
Only two dozen students of the 866-strong body called out sick on Tuesday, a number that drastically escalated overnight.
On Wednesday, only 145 students and half the faculty showed up to class.
Several hundred other students missed class Wednesday at another nearby elementary school, as well as a middle school and high school for a total of 1,231 students.
Other schools urged parents to keep their children home if possible out of an abundance of caution.
Although not formally identified as the norovirus, Baldwin County school officials are treating it as such.
Norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Anyone can get infected and sick with norovirus, which is easily spread through shared food and water, as well as infected surfaces.