TAUNTON — First Parish Church in Taunton cancelled services this week so that the building can be cleaned and sanitized while its minister and her family are home in Seekonk under self-quarantine out of concerns they may have contracted coronavirus, the Rev. Christana Wille McKnight said in a Facebook post Sunday.

McKnight said she and her husband Eric Wille McKnight have developed flu-like symptoms and were asked by the Department of Public Health to self-quarantine at home, along with their two young children, who are symptom free.

None of them has been tested for the virus.

McKnight said she and her husband are, fortunately, beginning to feel better.

“The good news in all of this is that as of now, Eric and I are both on the mend. While we were both quite sick for a few days, it never approached life-threatening,” she wrote in a letter to her congregation that she posted on Facebook Sunday morning.

“I had asthma as a child which I suspect made my shortness of breath during the illness more acute than Eric’s, but after my doctor prescribed a rescue inhaler, the situation has been easily managed,” she said.

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Under normal circumstances, they would likely both head back to work in the beginning or middle of next week.

“However, these are not ordinary circumstances. Despite the fact that Eric and I do not know if we have had COVID-19, and it seems virtually impossible to obtain a test for us without endangering others (assuming there even are enough tests on the premises to test everyone, which I am beginning to doubt after my various conversations) we believe the right thing to do is to heed the advice of our doctor and the (Massachusetts) Department of Public Health,” she said.

Out of “an abundance of caution which I fully support,” First Parish canceled services this Sunday so that it can be deep-cleaned and sanitized since McKnight had spent time there prior to the self-quarantine.

Once that process is complete, likely by Tuesday, First Parish will resume its normal activities, including the re-opening of Matthew Mission and the Chalice Thrift Shop, she said.

McKnight described in her Facebook post the confusing and sometimes contradictory advice she was given while seeking guidance from medical professionals and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) over the past few days.

Last week, her husband Eric, a psychotherapist, developed flu-like symptoms, including aches, pains, fatigue and a dry, unproductive cough, she said. A few days later, she also developed symptoms, including fever and some difficulty breathing.

She called their doctor and he recommended they go to Rhode Island Hospital to be tested for COVID-19. The doctor’s office does not have COVID-19 test kits of its own, McKnight said.

But when the doctor’s office called ahead, the hospital said unless their conditions were life-threatening they should not go to the hospital, where they could potentially expose vulnerable patients to the illness, McKnight said. Their doctor then referred them to the DPH.

The DPH official McKnight spoke with told her that her family does not meet the criteria to be tested for COVID-19 and recommended they self-quarantine for the next two weeks, McKnight said. The DPH also recommended they go to their doctor’s office to be tested for the flu, for a potential 'rule-out' diagnosis.

But their doctor’s office said a rule-out diagnosis would not be conclusive, and that if they came to their office they would be endangering their medical staff and patients, McKnight said.

Their doctor’s office repeated the recommendation to self-quarantine for the next two weeks but to go to the hospital immediately should their symptoms significantly worsen.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

"I am looking at this quarantine as a new kind of adventure - we’ve never stayed home for two solid weeks without visitors, and the mind bends a bit when thinking about the differences in daily life. In thinking about potential, I find myself grateful for all that technology affords us without being physically in a person’s presence, and interested to learn what new perspectives we might gain from this experience, both individually and as a family," she wrote.

But she said she is disappointed that her family was not able to obtain a COVID-19 test and worries that means the true incidence of the virus may be underreported.

"In terms of our situation of public health, I must confess to being deeply disappointed and angry,” she wrote.

“I am seeing in the news that there are less than 50 COVID-19 cases reported in Massachusetts - a clear indication to me, as the old saying goes, that you can’t find what you are not looking for. I can state with authority that at least the testing numbers are under-reported for what they should be. And while I appreciate the 'quarantine yourself for the public good' order and will follow it to the letter, I would feel less frustrated about this process if I knew that our family was, in fact, actual carriers of COVID-19 and merited quarantine,” she wrote.

“It is my hope and prayer that our government figures out a better way forward in managing this health crisis, for the sake of all of our communities," she wrote.