AKRON, Ohio — A Summit County judge is anxious to get back to her courtroom and a Kent State University student is ready to return to campus, but both of them remain stuck in their homes under self-quarantine due to coronavirus concerns.
Chloe Froning, a junior architecture major, was among several KSU students who had their study abroad experience cut short due to the spread of the virus in Italy.
She started her quarantine at her home in Kent six days ago and plans to continue it for 8 more days to meet the 14-day recommendation by the CDC and the university. She has been documenting some of the experience over Twitter.
"Sitting inside is a little stir crazy," she said.
Summit County Judge Alison McCarty knows the feeling. On Monday, she began her second week of a voluntary quarantine.
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"We order in. We order delivery and we order groceries, which we've never done that before ever," McCarty said.
The judge and her husband, Tom, traveled to Italy in February and met up with their daughter, Grace.
After Alison and Tom flew home, they learned Grace was sick, so as a precaution, and based on the recommendations of local health officials, Alison stayed home and hasn't reported to the the courthouse since she got back from vacation.
Grace, who lives in Paris, is now feeling better. She was never tested for coronavirus.
"They told her because she's young and healthy, they weren't going to test her," the judge said.
The judge was hoping to return to her bench this week, but after speaking with Administrative Judge Amy Corrigall Jones on Monday, the decision was made for McCarty to return on March 16.
"In light of the fact that I work in a courthouse that is visited by large numbers of the public, that's probably the safest route," McCarty said.
McCarty, who remains symptom-free, said she asked local health officials if she could be tested for the virus, but understands why the requests was denied.
"Why would they run a test on a perfectly healthy person like me?" she said. "They'd have to say test to everybody and that's really not feasible."
However, Froning believes there should be more extensive efforts to test people especially since coronarvirus cases have now been confirmed in Ohio.
"I think we should be figuring out the spread and testing as many people as we can, but there are so many restrictions right now that I think it's very frustrating," Froning said.
On Monday, Froning started online classes through Kent State to continue her education until she can return to campus.
"I'll be happy when I get out of the house," she said.
Judge McCarty said she's also ready for her unwanted time off to end. She has been doing some work from home, including reading emails and signing documents electronically, but there's only so much she can do away from her court, so she has also been boxing clothes for Goodwill and cleaning.
"By the time this is over, I'm going to have a really clean house," she said.
