A high-school from West Lothian has cut short their skiing trip to Italy because of fears over coronavirus.
St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston were on a week long trip but with the situation in Italy deteriorating a decision was taken to abort the trip.
The 30 pupils and three PE teachers left on Sunday for the sky-ing vacation at Aosta Valley in the Western Alps and had been due to travel home this Sunday but they left early on Thursday and were due to arrive home on Friday morning, two days ahead of schedule.
None of the party has any symptoms of the virus so they will not be quarantined on return to Scotland.
A West Lothian Council spokesman said: “A group from St Margaret’s Academy is currently in Northern Italy on a ski trip but the group has not stayed in or travelled through any of the affected areas.
“As a precautionary measure given the level of public interest in this matter the school has decided to return the group a few days earlier than planned. It is important to stress that no members of the group have reported any symptoms of being unwell and we’d emphasise that this is purely a precautionary measure.
“The school has closely followed the national guidance regarding foreign travel and when the group departed there was no guidance provided advising not to travel to their destination.
“We will continue to follow and act upon advice from Heath Protection Scotland in relation to persons that are returning from Northern Italy.”
So far Italy has had a reported 400 cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths. The worst affected regions are in Milan and Venice.
