Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

More than 23,000 students in a district near Seattle on Thursday joined hundreds of millions worldwide who are out of school because of the new coronavirus.

The Northshore School District in Bothell, which is near the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Washington state, closed all 36 of the district's schools. Students will take online classes beginning Monday.

Many other districts or individual schools across the U.S. have closed for deep cleaning or have shut their doors for two weeks to see if infections develop among their students.

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In New York's Westchester County, two school districts closed Thursday until at least Monday for disinfection after students or parents were possibly exposed to the coronavirus.

(MORE: Tennessee Reports First Coronavirus Case; Cruise Ship Held Off California)

In New York City, where several teachers have recently returned from international trips and one teacher is self-quarantined, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told WABC on Wednesday, "I think we all agree that closing schools is probably the last option because of the myriad of issues that creates for not only students, parents, teachers, etc., so that's on the spectrum of last resorts."

In Los Angeles, home to the second-largest public school district in the U.S. after New York City, officials declared a state of emergency Wednesday and advised parents to prepare for possible school closures, the New York Times reported.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a video on the district's website: "The health experts at the County and the CDC will provide us with information they have it, as well as specific instructions for school operations in the event of any occurrence of the virus in our schools. ... We're also making plans for learning to continue at home if any schools are going to be closed, as well as the possibility of extending the school year to make up for and disruption to the school calendar, if necessary."

(MORE: What You Should Know About Coronavirus)

Worldwide, some 300 million children are out of school because of the new coronavirus, according to the United Nations. Schools have been closed nationwide in at least 13 countries to contain the spread of COVID-19, UNESCO reports. That affects 290.5 million students. Another nine countries have seen schools closed in various locations.

In addition, scores of universities have canceled classes, and study-abroad sessions and international travel have been halted.

“I don’t have data to offer, but can’t think of any instances in modern times where advanced economies shut down schools nationally for prolonged periods of time,” Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, told the New York Times.

Italy has ordered all schools and universities nationwide to close until March 15. Schools in the northern regions — where the coronavirus outbreak has been the worst — were already closed.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte justified the extraordinary move by warning that there might not be enough intensive care units to treat patients if the virus continues its “exponential” spread, The Associated Press reported.

Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said closing the schools “wasn’t a simple decision … we waited for the opinion of the scientific-technical committee and we decided to suspend teaching activities from (Thursday) till 15 March. It is a decision of impact; I hope the pupils will return to school as soon as possible.”

Azzolina said the government was committed to making sure that “this essential public service may continue to be supplied remotely to all our students,” The Guardian reported.

Iran's health minister told reporters Thursday that the country's schools and universities will remain closed until the end of the Iranian year, which is March 19. After that, national holidays would keep them closed until April, the BBC reported.

"People should not consider this as an opportunity to go traveling," Saeed Namaki said. "They should stay home and take our warnings seriously. This virus is highly contagious — it is a serious matter, do not joke about it."

Iran has reported 107 COVID-19 deaths and 3,513 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

All public and private schools through the fifth grade were ordered closed through March in India's capital city, New Delhi, AP reported.

Earlier this week, France closed about 120 schools indefinitely in areas where the coronavirus has hit particularly hard, France 24 reported. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said more could be added in the coming days.

In China, where some 200 million students have been taking online classes since schools were closed indefinitely, one class chat discussion appeared to have triggered government censors. Thirty minutes into a discussion of bioinformatics, the science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data, the group chat system disbanded the group for violating China’s Internet regulations, AP reported.

“I’m not sure exactly what phrases triggered it,” student Chu Xinjian said. “I guess we touched on some sensitive topic.”