For the second straight week, schools in Upshur County will be closed through at least Oct. 17 due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
Upshur County is categorized as orange on the official Saturday map released by the West Virginia Department of Education. The map sets school guidance for the following week.
The designation means classrooms will be closed and sports competitions will cease for at least the next seven days.
“Remote learning [is] required,” according to the WVDE. “Extracurricular activities are limited to conditioning only and sport-specific practicing is not permitted. Marching band is limited to outdoors only. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue.”
Upshur County currently has the worst infection rate in the state, well into the red alert category. However, free testing events held throughout the past week dropped the positivity percentage to just above 5 percent, which is orange.
The state map uses the lower of the two metrics regardless of the disparity between them.
A total of 86 COVID-19 cases are currently active in Upshur County, according to the W.Va. Department of Health and Human Resources. That’s nearly double the number of cases that were active at this time last week.
Here’s the official press release from the W.Va. Dept. of Education:
The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) has posted the October 10, 2020, Saturday Education Map that determines which counties will hold in-person and blended instruction and directs the level of extracurricular activities permitted. The map is developed with information from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) and vetted by the COVID-19 Data Review Panel.
The weekly updates are posted at https://wvde.us/reentrymetrics. County plans should be reviewed for additional requirements.
Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Counties must move to remote learning. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue.
Red counties include: No counties are in the red category at this time.
Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote learning required. Extracurricular activities are limited to conditioning only and sport-specific practicing is not permitted. Marching band is limited to outdoors only. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue.
Orange counties include: Doddridge, Harrison, Mingo, Upshur
Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction permitted with increased mitigations including face coverings for children grades 3 and above at all times. Extracurricular activities are permitted in-county (with schools from the same county) and with other gold counties.
Gold counties include: Barbour, Berkeley, Cabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Putnam, Randolph
Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): Counties will continue with in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades 6 and above.
Yellow counties include: Boone, Logan, Morgan, Nicholas, Wayne, Wirt
Green (Minimal Community Transmission): Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades 3 and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses.
Green counties include: Braxton, Brooke, Calhoun, Clay, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Jefferson, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Monongalia, Monroe, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Webster, Wetzel, Wood, Wyoming
The COVID-19 Data Review Panel reviewed and verified the data used to inform the WVDE Saturday Education Map to ensure both accuracy and reliability. The panel considered data captured at 11:59 p.m., Thursday, October 8, 2020. As a result, there may be differences between the WVDE map and the DHHR County Alert Map.The county color announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time with the exception of a county turning red during the course of the week. Once reviewed, that change may be made immediately to the WVDE map because all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE Saturday Education Map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.
For information about the data that guides the color-coded map or the Data Review Panel, please contact the DHHR at DHHRCommunications@wv.gov.
