HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Farnell Middle School in Northwest Hillsborough County will close for a minimum of 48 hours to help stem the spread of coronavirus, school officials announced Thursday.

Incoming Hillsborough County School District superintendent Addison Davis said an unidentified person is in self-isolation after being exposed to the novel coronavirus. The person regularly visits the school.

Davis said the man has not shown any symptoms of the virus, but has decided to self-isolate under the recommendation of health officials. It is not immediately clear whether this individual is a student, staff member or visitor.

The school district told parents not to bring their children to school in a robocall and letter. The closure will last 48 hours. Spring break begins the following day.

Davis said the school is treating the next two days as hurricane days, giving crews time to shut down its entire A/C system, do a “thermal fog” and a deep clean.

Farnell is the first and only school in Tampa Bay to close amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

For the past few weeks, the district has been monitoring the impact of the virus on Hillsborough County students and their families, as schools around the country make tough calls, choosing to go online-only or to close.

The district sent a letter to parents last week, saying it was remaining vigilant as it monitored the situation. They later canceled all school-sponsored out-of-state trips involving air travel until further notice.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation and our district is engaged with the Department of Health in Hillsborough County to review our strategies and plans in how the community would respond to a case. We will be working closely together to identify the best options should a case be detected in Hillsborough County,” the letter said.

Those in the community have mixed reactions about the closure of Farnell.

“I’m taking precuations, but I’m not overreacting,” said Sandra Setin, who has three kids in the district.

Others are taking a more serious approach.

“I hope it doesn’t get as bad as Italy,” said Jessica, who did not want to give her name. “I feel really bad for over there and China. For right now, hopefully we’re okay.”

On Thursday afternoon, a district spokeswoman sent video showing school buses being cleaned by a professional cleaning company.

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