CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Six West Virginia counties remain in the red or orange counties in the newly released state Department of Education COVID-19 map requiring remote learning only in those counties for at least the next week.
The Saturday evening map had Kanawha, Putnam, Mingo and Fayette counties in the “red” category which means substantial community transmission while Monongalia and Boone counties are in “orange” with a heightened community transmission status.
Update: The Saturday, September 19, 2020, School Alert System Map is below. You can also view at https://t.co/lSu7Fi4R58.
For more details: https://t.co/JjakJslyuk. Again, due to heavy traffic, the WVDE website may load slowly for some visitors. We thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/XqPVoenPSF
— WV Dept of Education (@WVeducation) September 19, 2020
Red counties cannot have extra-curricular activities including no practices while orange also allows no extra-curricular activities but does allow for sports conditioning. The new map means Kanawha County willl start a third straight week of school without in-person instruction and sports competition.
The new map does have three counties (Logan, Ohio, Wyoming) in the new “gold” category which allows for in-person school instruction with increased mitigation including mandatory masks from grades 3 and above at all times. Extra-curricular activities can occur but is limited to competition against schools within the same county or with teams in other gold counties.
MORE High school schoolboard for next week
Saturday’s map place 26 counties in the “yellow” increased community transmission category. The counties can continue to have in-person instruction and can continue to play sports.
Twenty counties are in the “green” category.
The #COVID19 Data Review Panel today reviewed data from a public health perspective to determine the accuracy and reliability of the data to ensure they are a true indication of what’s occurring among counties across West Virginia.
Read more here: https://t.co/i3ZAcwLKRY pic.twitter.com/xD3iShQLq2— WV DHHR (@WV_DHHR) September 19, 2020
The COVID-19 review panel which begins its review of data with a cut-off of 11:59 p.m. on Thursdays made a handful of changes following its review:
Cabell County: Moved from gold to green as the percent positivity is less than 3%.
Lincoln County: Moved from gold to yellow since there were less than 20 aggregate cases over 14 days. Lincoln County was assessed with a 14-day average rather than a 7-day average due to the number of cases being below 20.
Pocahontas County: Moved from gold to green due to the exclusion of linked and contained cases who are now recovered.