UPDATE WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH. A SECOND STUDENT IS SELF-ISOLATING 'AS A PRECAUTION.'

Experts from Public Health England have helped Peter Symonds College trace the contacts of a student who has tested positive for coronavirus.

Students and parents received an email from the college this morning to say it had been notified that a student had tested positive; was now isolating at home and that the college would be open on Monday as usual.

College principal, Sara Russell later sent a further email to say experts from Public Health England had completed the contact tracing process and all students who have had close interaction with the student who tested positive for the virus have received the appropriate health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the next 14 days.

The principal also confirmed that the college has been deep cleaned in line with advice from Public Health England:

Sara Russell added:

“I understand that students and parents may be worried, but following advice from the specialists at PHE, I am assured that there is no need for the College to close, and we will be open as usual tomorrow. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and will inform students and parents quickly if the advice to us changes.”

One student from Eastleigh – who is shortly expecting to be sitting A levels at Symonds – told Eastleigh News that they were worried that if the coronavirus outbreak worsened it might impact on the examination timetable and delay university admissions but added:

“This is a worry most A level students have around the country – not just students at Peter Symonds but it’s stressful enough as it is, without coronavirus as well.”

The Winchester Sixth form college has around 4,000 students including boarders from overseas and around 350 staff.

Old Symondians include Olympic Gold Medalist Ben Ainslie, stand-up comedian Jack Dee and the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North Caroline Nokes.