Don’t get too comfortable with the metrics or the guidance.
West Virginia officials hinted Wednesday at three ways West Virginia deals with the coronavirus in schools might change.
1. A ‘tweak’ in assessing spread in small counties
On Friday, Justice rolled out a color-coded map that assesses the spread of coronavirus using a 7-day rolling average of new cases, adjusted for 100,000 population.
After announcing some changes to the system on Monday, Justice followed up by saying another aspect could change.
The governor is concerned that the system will magnify cases in very small counties. But he did not specify what kind of change would fix that.
The governor said he was warned about the situation by a caller named “Jay.”
“Yesterday, I received an email — or a text, rather — and the text came from a good friend of mine up in Pleasants County. His name’s Jay, and I’m not going to go into his last name,” Justice said.
“But Jay had a real concern about the metric we were using as it reflected to the smaller counties. Now, that’s all he said. But that’s all somebody’s got to say to me. And I’m going to go back and doublecheck it.”
The governor continued, “So I went back and we started through all the math and we called everybody together yesterday evening and we started checking, checking, checking, checking and lo and behold we do have a bias even though we’re moving it and adjusting it with population it does show a skew or a little level of bias.”
“So it was a good tip.”
West Virginia includes some very, very low-population counties, said coronavirus response coordinator Clay Marsh.
“And when we have very few cases that could happen over a 7-day period of time that could put a county into the orange, we want to make sure that’s not just a happenstance, an outlier event, and want to make sure that’s a consistent level of community spread. So we will be coming out with additional guidance.”
2. A higher mask standard in schools
Until now, state officials have described mandatory masks in instances where students mix in schools — in common areas such as buses, hallways or cafeterias — but not necessarily in classrooms where students are intended to remain together in “pods.”
There was a heightened requirement for counties that move to “orange” in the state’s new color-coded guidance system.
Under orange, the requirements move to “Required masks grades 3-5 in congregant settings and grades 6 and above at all times.”
But today, Superintendent Clayton Burch said 79 percent of West Virginia students have chosen in-class education options, rather than virtual.
If most students are in classrooms instead of staying home, that could make social distancing more challenging.
Burch today said the broad guidance is moving toward heightened mask requirements in all situations.
“Yes, now that you see the color-coded map we’re going to actually revisit that,” Burch said, alluding to an upcoming conversation with Marsh.
“We absolutely will be looking at additional requirements for mask wearing.”
Marsh, on Wednesday afternoon, said the meeting had not yet been made final. But he said officials are committed to meeting CDC guidelines to make classrooms as safe as possible.
“So more to come on that,” Marsh said.
3. Step-by-step guidance if coronavirus is identified in class
Lots of parents and teachers have been asking for more clarity on what would happen if a student develops coronavirus symptoms during the school day.
Burch said he’s been working with Marsh, DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch and State Health Officer Ayne Amjad to spell out what should happen in that scenario.
“One of the things county superintendents have asked for is that protocol because if there is a suspected case in the classroom they want to know exactly, working with their local health departments, what are the protocols to keep everyone safe, from a quarantine or a deep cleaning,” Burch said.
Marsh said the steps would depend on factors including who was experiencing symptoms and who had been near them.
“We’re really trying to segregate or cohort kids and maintain sort of separateness between classes so you don’t get the intermixing,” Marsh said.
He added, “We would remove that child or the teacher from that room. We would tell the room to quarantine and then notify the local health department. They would then start to do their investigation, and if they found there was not significant interaction — which is defined as 15 minutes of exposure, six feet or less apart from the person — then they would release the people from their quarantine.”
Amjad acknowledged officials are working on a step-by-step guide.
“We are working to finalize an outbreak guidance report,” she said, specifying that there’s a meeting tonight to conclude.
“It’s a step-by-step guide to answer those questions for local counties on how to deal with a child who is suspected to be sick or have covid-19 in a school so that a teacher or principal can know what to do.”