Potential exposures to the coronavirus have prompted Pittsburgh Public Schools to take steps to prevent it from being spread to other people.

Colfax Elementary School in Squirrel Hill was closed Thursday after officials learned that a student may have been exposed to the coronavirus from a relative outside the school.

Meanwhile, St. Bede School, a Catholic K-8 school in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood, sent two students home Thursday after officials learned they have relatives enrolled at Colfax. Later Thursday, the school announced it will close Friday and Monday for cleaning. St. Bede students, for now, are scheduled to go back to school on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh Brookline K-8 announced it will also be closed Friday after district officials received information that a relative of one the school’s students may have been exposed to covid-19 while traveling out of state.

While Colfax is shut down for the day, the district’s operations team will clean the building using a device that sprays a mist with an electrostatic charge that clings to surfaces, school officials said.

Pittsburgh Public Schools also sent a letter home to parents on Wednesday informing them that the district was notified that an employee has self-quarantined because a family member may have been exposed to the coronavirus at a conference.

The district employee, who was not publicly identified, has a child living in eastern Pennsylvania who recently traveled to the Pittsburgh area and is under self-quarantine after possibly being exposed to the virus at a conference in Washington, D.C.

As a precaution, the employee will remain quarantined for at least 14 days. The employee and the college-age child have not tested positive for coronavirus.

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