CHARLESTON, W.Va. — City of Charleston and Kanawha County education officials are keeping a close eye on the county’s color on the COVID-19 coded map as the start of the school year is one week.
As of Monday’s update by the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), Kanawha County is the color orange meaning school has to be done remotely and school teams are not allowed to play.
The county has 12.99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people on a rolling 7-day average as of Monday. Any rate of more than 24.9 moves a county to red.
If the numbers hold up, Kanawha County would begin remotely on September 8.
“In the spring they stepped up to the plate and were remarkable in the way they were able to turn on a dime take instruction from in-person to remote learning,” Dinah Adkins, co-president of the Kanawha County Education Association told 580-WCHS on teachers in March.
“Was it the best situation? Maybe not but I believe that considering the safety of all of our citizens in the county and in the state, it is the best situation to use.”
Tom Williams, Kanawha County Schools Superintendent appeared on Monday’s 580-LIVE on 580-WCHS and said the school system is taking this day-by-day. He said if schools are in session one day and in the morning update from DHHR indicates the color red, schools will not be able to return to the physical classrooms until the next Saturday update with the color yellow.
He was adamant on 580-LIVE that citizens in the county must follow all the guidelines to improve numbers, thus getting kids back in the physical classroom. Students have not learned in-person since March.
“Wear your masks, do what you’re supposed to do so we can get our kids in school like we are supposed to be. We haven’t seen these kids since March and that is really frightening,” Williams said.
Amy Shuler Goodwin, the Mayor of Charleston was also a guest on Monday’s 580-LIVE and said Kanawha County could be in the red at some point in the current week.
Goodwin said that Dr. Sherri Young from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department reported more than 30 of the 43 COVID-19 cases confirmed over the weekend in the county came from community spread.
“From the mouth of Dr. Sherri Young from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department said “Everybody is worrying about orange but should be worried about red.” When we have this much community spread right now, we have to start wearing masks more,” Goodwin said.
“Everybody wants their kids back in school, everybody wants their kids running cross country or playing football.”
On Monday, Justice announced student-athletes in Kanawha, Logan and Fayette counties, those counties in the orange on Saturday, will have mass testing done. If all tests on a team and coaching staff come back negative, teams are allowed to play on Friday.
Adkins said school systems should not rush anything, including going back to school and playing sports.
“To just go back at the sake of going back to school is not the wisest decision. We need to be able to go back in a situation that keeps everybody safe and we just do not know everything about COVID-19,” she said.