AKRON, Ohio — A Summit County Common Pleas judge is currently under quarantine as a "cautionary measure" after traveling to Italy with her family in late February.
Judge Alison McCarty tells 3News she and her husband Tom (who works as Assistant Attorney General for the state of Ohio) have decided to quarantine themselves for 14 days due to possible exposure to coronavirus. The two apparently met their daughter Grace (who lives in France) in Italy a little over a week ago to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
"We were in Venice during Carnival," Judge McCarty said. "Then they started canceling these events for Carnival, so that’s when we realized there was an issue."
The family split up last Monday, with McCarty and her husband heading to Florence and Grace returning to Paris, where she became sick. The couple returned to Cleveland last night, and this morning, their daughter reached out to say that her job was asking her to stay home.
"They are telling her to monitor her temperature, her temperature is not high right now," McCarty said. "If it goes up, then she is to call them, and they’ll come out and test her."
Both Judge McCarty and her husband have shown no symptoms, and neither has been to the Summit County Courthouse since returning to Northeast Ohio.
"I don’t want to make the lawyers, the litigants, or my employees uncomfortable to be around me," McCarty said. "They have a visiting judge who’s going to cover for me, and my fellow judges have also said they’ll do whatever they can to help—so I appreciate that."
Adminstrative Judge Amy Corrigall Jones echoed those sentiments, stating Monday, "I will see that her courtroom is covered and will work with local and state officials in executing a plan moving forward to address concerns surrounding the coronavirus."
Italy is currently under a "Level 3" travel advisory as designated by the United States government due to ongoing spread of the coronavirus. All travel to the country should be reconsidered, officials say.
Meanwhile, Kent State University and Walsh University have both called all students studying abroad in Italy to return home. This comes as the U.S. reported its first two coronavirus-related deaths during the weekend -- both of which happened in Washington state.
Ohio has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus to date. Globally, there have been more than 3,000 deaths with more than 90,000 total cases.
Health officials say the symptoms of coronavirus include fever, cough, some chest pain and shortness of breath.