(Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story reported the incorrect total of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. due to an editing error.)

A Missouri man has been accused of ignoring health officials' directions to self-quarantine when he and his daughter attended a school dance after his other daughter tested positive for coronavirus.

The lawyer representing the man and his family has a different story: He says health officials didn't tell the entire family to self-quarantine, only the daughter.

Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School wrote on Facebook that classes were canceled Monday and the school was weighing its next decision after the father-daughter dance Saturday night. In a separate post, the school canceled classes for the remainder of the week.

"Our campus will be given a hospital-grade cleaning," the school wrote. "School buildings will be sanitized and ready for students to return on March 23 after our spring break."

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said at a livestreamed news conference that the infected woman contacted health officials Thursday after becoming symptomatic. She and her family were instructed to self-quarantine, and Page said officials relied on "common sense and goodwill," assuming the whole family would comply.

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"The way the family has reacted to this situation is really a tale of two reactions. It is a study of how people should and should not react to the coronavirus," Page said.

The woman was informed of the presumptive positive result Saturday and followed health officials instructions to stay quarantined, Page said. He added she was to be "commended for complying with the health department's instructions."

However, the woman's father and his other daughter attended the school dance Saturday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton. The two left the dance after they learned of the woman's presumptive positive result, the school said in a statement, according to KTVI-TV.

Missouri-based lawyer Neil Bruntrager told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that family members were told only to quarantine the older daughter, which they did Thursday after she began showing symptoms.

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The woman was taken to a hospital on Friday and a doctor told the family, "My gut feeling is that I don’t think she has it," Bruntrager told the newspaper. She was tested for coronavirus because she had been to Italy, the Post-Dispatch reported.

“These poor people are being pilloried and vilified,” he said told the newspaper. “They were being proactive. They were trying to deal with this problem.”

Bruntrager said the family wasn't instructed about what to do until Sunday, according to the Post-Dispatch.

The family has self-quarantined since learning of the woman's positive diagnosis, Page said in a Monday press conference. In response to Bruntrager's statement, Page said "it's time to move forward" and "this was was a lesson for everyone that a quarantine is serious."

Bruntrager did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Tuesday night.

There are more than 160,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, including 3,244 in the U.S. as of Sunday afternoon.

Oak Hill and Villa Duchesne are two schools on the same campus – Oak Hill is a co-ed school serving children through sixth grade, while Villa Duchesne is an all-girls school for grades seven through 12.

Page said the father has been informed to stay in his home, or a formal quarantine will be issued "that will require him and the rest of his family to stay in their home by the force of law."

Monday, Page said the formal quarantine order is not necessary and there has been no indication the family broke quarantine after the older daughter received a presumptive positive result late Saturday afternoon.

"There was a bit of a panic surrounding this and I think we all just need to step back and put it all in perspective," Page said, adding "disparaging remarks" were made on social media and that police have been patroling the family's home. "It's really not healthy."

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Health officials were in contact with the woman and her family "multiple times per day" since Thursday and repeatedly told the family to self-quarantine, Page said.

"I believe our professionals in the county health department who do this every day did the same thing they do every day with everyone else," Page said. "This is the first time that we've heard that someone didn't understand it clearly."

It is unclear how many people were at the dance. The other members of the woman's family, including the father, haven't shown symptoms of COVID-19.

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The father and daughter were also at a pre-gathering at a student's home, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Spring Schmidt, co-director for the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, said Monday said the father and daughter who attended the dance are not symptomatic.

"Anyone else's exposure to them, particularly for brief periods of time, is not really of significant concern to the CDC," Schmidt said.

The Post-Dispatch also reported the woman flew into Chicago O'Hare International Airport on March 2 and stayed with a friend before taking an Amtrak train to St. Louis on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, the woman, in her 20s, was studying abroad.

Passengers who were on the same train as the woman are being notified, Amtrak said.