The state covid map that came out tonight has only minimal effect on the coming school week because Gov. Jim Justice had already called for an extended Thanksgiving break.
Justice has called for all schools to begin this week in remote learning, with those in green, yellow and gold able to return to in-person or blended learning models on Thursday, Dec. 3.
The governor made the decision for a longer break out of concern that families would gather, resulting in further spread of virus right as school was originally set to resume.
Nevertheless, the Saturday map that determines school status for the coming week depicted five counties as red, the highest levels of covid-19 in communities. Those were Mason, Mineral, Ritchie, Wirt and Wyoming counties.
Another 17 counties were orange, the second highest levels of covid. Orange dictates a shift to remote learning. Extracurricular activities are limited to conditioning only and sport-specific practicing is not permitted.
The c0unties shown as orange were Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Doddridge, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Marshall, Mingo, Ohio, Pocahontas, Putnam, Taylor, Wayne and Wood.
The county color announced each Saturday will be in effect until the following Saturday with the exception of a county turning red during the course of the week.
A data review panel of health experts did make some adjustments to the map.
- Hancock County: Moved from orange to gold due to data validation and one case updated with the correct county of residence.
- Harrison County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation, 14 cases updated to confirmed status and two cases updated with the correct county of residence.
- Jefferson County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation and one case updated to confirmed status.
- Logan County: Moved from yellow to green due to data validation and lab results updated to the correct county of residence.
- Ritchie County: Moved from orange to red due to turning red on the DHHR 10:00am Saturday map.
- Upshur County: Moved from yellow to gold due to data validation, eight cases updated to confirmed status and two cases updated with the correct county of residence.
The data contributing toward the Saturday Education Map is based on data from the DHHR’s County Alert Map as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, November 26, 2020. This cut off time is used to give time to verify the accuracy and completeness of all data to be utilized in the Saturday Education Map.
To view the Saturday Education Map, visit https://wvde.us/reentrymetrics. The COVID-19 dashboard is located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov.