CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Vaccination clinics are scheduled for high school students in Kanawha County at nine locations Tuesday as the county health department reports an outbreak of cases.
According to the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, there were 41 confirmed cases involving students as of Monday afternoon along with three cases involving school staff members.
The outbreaks were reported at five public schools and two private schools including St. Albans High School, Chamberlain Elementary School, John Adams Middle School, Riverside High School, St. Francis Elementary School, Hayes Middle School and Cross Lanes Christian School.
The seven school outbreaks represent the most in the county since the pandemic began, the health department said.
Kanawha County School Superintendent Tom Williams said vaccination clinics would open for students 16 and older at the county’s eight high schools Tuesday.
“They must have a parent permission slip,” Williams said.
Those slips can be obtained through Schoology or in-person by parents Tuesday.
The school system is working with the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and its partners on the clinics. The health department announced a shift in vaccination strategy Monday afternoon to focus on eligible students and other groups.
The clinics will be at George Washington, Sissonville, Herbert Hoover, Capital, Riverside, St. Albans, Nitro and South Charleston high schools. There will also be clinics at Charleston Catholic High School and the University of Charleston.
“We’re changing our strategy to vaccinate in the groups where we continue to see COVID-19 spread,” Kanawha-Charleston Health Department Health Officer and Executive Director Dr. Sherri Young said Monday. “Unfortunately, we continue to see high numbers of cases and outbreaks in our schools, mostly related to sports, so that’s one of the places we want to focus our efforts.”
Superintendent Williams said they haven’t yet had to close any of the schools where the outbreaks have been reported.
“We do the deep cleaning once we get a case reported and we quarantine the kids or the staff. That’s what we’ve been doing all year,” Williams said.
Williams said he thinks people are getting a little tired of the masks but they need to hold on a little while longer.
“I think we have a lot of community spread,” he said. “We need to remember this isn’t over yet and people need to continue to wear masks, wash their hands and try to stay socially distanced.”
A number of Kanawha County high school basketball games for this week have been postponed because of the outbreaks.