Comment on Far from home, international students find solace amid pandemic threat

Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support this mission by purchasing a digital subscription. With 9,053 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday morning, Spain trailed only nearby Italy among nations with the most fatalities stemming from the current global pandemic. That grim reality leaves 14-year-old Lucia De Villota uneasy. [Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county] “The worst places are Barcelona and Madrid because they’re the main cities,” said De Villota, a freshman at Foxcroft Academy originally from the Spanish capital of Madrid, which has a population of 6.55 million. “It’s pretty bad because it’s close to Italy and a lot of people travel between Italy and Spain, so it got contagious there pretty quickly,” she said. De Villota is one of approximately 45 boarding students from around the world who, after consulting with their families, decided to remain at Foxcroft Academy this spring rather than return home as the virus continued to spread from continent to continent. “I could have gone back, but my parents prefer me to stay here,” she said.