School superintendents in southeastern Washington scrambled Friday to scrape together emergency plans following the announcement from Gov. Jay Inslee that all public and private schools in the state will shut down by Tuesday and stay closed through April 24 in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

As of Friday afternoon, there were 568 confirmed cases of the disease in Washington and 37 deaths. There were no confirmed cases in Asotin, Garfield or Whitman counties, but test results are pending for five residents in Asotin County and about 14 in Whitman County.

“This virus is going to spread to other counties, and it is spreading very rapidly. We have concluded that a county-by-county approach to this epidemic is not sufficient,” Inslee said, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.

“We need to get ahead of this wave, and we need to do it today. I believe consistency across the state has many advantages in our policies in this very dynamic situation that we are all managing,” the governor added.

Inslee instructed schools to provide day care for the children of first responders and medical workers, and for homeless students during the six-week shutdown, and to continue to provide meals for children who normally receive free or reduced-price lunches. Inslee also told schools to explore remote teaching opportunities.

Pomeroy School District Superintendent Rachel Gwinn said children were instructed to gather their belongings and take them home Friday. The district will not hold classes Monday, but students can come to their schools Monday and Tuesday to finish gathering their belongings and any required learning materials if they need to. All sport practices have been canceled.

Gwinn is waiting further clarification on which students will receive food during the shutdown, but said they will likely receive sack lunches. The district is also working on child care arrangements.

“We are going to start planning this afternoon and get more (guidance) from the Office of Superintendent and Educational Service Districts in making those,” she said.

“I will make it a priority to continually communicate with families as additional information becomes available. We will continually update our website and Facebook pages, as well as use our alert system when necessary. Please be patient with us as we work through all the requirements, obligations and questions that will need to be answered,” she said.

Thaynan Knowlton, superintendent of Clarkston School District, said he is tapping into the experience of schools in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, who had a one-day head start on formulating plans. Inslee ordered those school districts to close Thursday.

“We are going to be watching and taking a lot of direction from districts that are already doing this,” Knowlton said. “In any kind of business or education circles, we all know each other. I will be talking to our colleagues on the west side about how to solve this problem.”

Knowlton expects to communicate with the parents of students by Monday about the logistics of the closure and services that will remain available.

“One thing we will not be doing in Clarkston is providing full online instruction,” he said, noting the district doesn’t have as many technology options as some in other parts of the state. “Our principals have been working on how we are going to accomplish education during this six weeks for out students.”

Clarkston schools will be open Monday, and Knowlton said he expects to continue to communicate with parents as plans become more concrete.

Dale Bonfield, superintendent of the Asotin School District, said school will be held Monday and his staff will hold a meeting Tuesday, the first day of the closure, to continue to implement plans to provide the services Inslee is demanding.

“At that time, we will provide day care set up for all medical personnel, first responders and homeless students. They can show up at 7:30 a.m. just like the normal school time,” he said. “Then the school district will be working Tuesday through Friday on strategies on how best to provide our education or implement our plan on how we are going to educate our students off-site.”

He did not know yet if meals would be provided to qualifying students at the Asotin campus or if they would be delivered.

“I have a lot of work to do here yet to figure out all of the details,” he said.

Chris Reykdal, state superintendent of public instruction, told the Tacoma News Tribune that school buses may be used in some districts to deliver meals and the schools will work to ensure students receive necessary services and education. Figuring out how to do that will take some time, he said.

Washington relaxed its coronavirus testing protocol Friday, said Brady Woodbury, public health administrator in Asotin County.

“Any physician or provider can send in samples. We still encourage them to try to meet the criteria but it’s really up to the provider,” he said.

He said at a minimum providers should first rule out other illnesses such as the flu before sending tests to state labs or other testing facilities.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Friday the state’s first confirmed coronavirus patient — an Ada County woman in her 50s. The state has not moved to close schools but education officials are assessing the quickly evolving situation and making contingency plans. Lewiston School District Superintendent Bob said the district is taking it “day by day.”

The North Central Idaho Health District said Friday that it is recommending the postponement or cancellation of mass gatherings that may attract people from areas with confirmed community spread of the disease, events with more than 250 people where attendees cannot reasonably keep 6 feet from each other or if the primary audience includes people over the age of 60 and people with health problems.

Events continued to be canceled at a rapid pace Friday and some businesses made changes to help spread accurate information about the disease or to make it easier to exercise social distancing. For example, the Lewiston Tribune will post stories about coronavirus outside of the normal paywall at www.lmtribune.com and Sparklight, formally known as Cable One, said it is making unlimited data available on all of its internet services for the next 30 days and waving late fees for customers over the next 60 days. The company is also offering payment deferrals to customers who make arrangements to do so.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies canceled Tuesday’s public meeting at Lewiston and all other meetings in the region on the draft environmental impact statement for the Columbia River Hydropower System and its effects on salmon and steelhead. The Corps and other agencies have shifted the meetings to telephone only. Corps spokesman Matt Rabe said people may call in to make public comments and listen to the comments of others. Information on the call-in procedure is available at http://bit.ly/38PyFrI.

Avista Corp. will close all of its offices to the public starting Wednesday and require employees with jobs “not critical to providing safe and reliable electric and natural gas service or essential business support services” to work from home.

The Garfield County Hospital is no longer allowing visitors and screening all people who enter the medical center.

The Garfield County Jail has suspended visitation.

All 14 branches of the Whitman County Library will be closed Monday through March 31.

The Boys and Girls Club of the Lewis-Clark Valley canceled its Family Fun Day today at the Lewiston Club.

The League of Woman Voters of Moscow has suspended its noon forums from March 25 through April 15.

The Nez Perce Tribe has suspend travel for tribal entities through April 10.

Young Life has canceled all of its events through April 3.

A Bluegrass/Country Music jam planned for Sunday at the Lenore Community Center has been called off.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.