September 15, 2020
Charleston, W.Va. –The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) has posted the updated School Alert System map that includes the new gold category metric. As announced by Governor Jim Justice, counties in gold have 10 – 14.9 cases of COVID-19 infection per 100,000 people.
In the gold category, counties will be able to move to an in-person instructional model with restrictions including face coverings at all times for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted and competitions may occur against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Additionally, modifications to spectator requirements at extracurricular activities have been made.
As a part of this re-set, students from several counties that were deemed orange as of last Saturday’s (September 12) School Alert Map update, are now gold and may, at the discretion of their local boards of education, return to in-person instruction tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16. They may also resume the activities described above and outlined at https://wvde.us/reentrymetrics. These county boards of education may also decide to wait and make decisions based on the Saturday, September 19, 2020, School Alert System map update.
Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Counties in red include Monongalia.
* Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Counties in orange include Kanawha and Monroe.
* Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): Counties in gold include Boone, Fayette, Logan, Mingo and Putnam.
Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): Counties in yellow include Berkeley, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Grant, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDowell, Mercer, Ohio, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Upshur and Wayne.
Green (Minimal Community Transmission): Counties in green include Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Hardy, Hampshire, Lewis, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Mineral, Morgan, Nicholas, Pendleton, Pleasants, Preston, Randolph, Ritchie, Tyler, Webster, Wetzel, Wood, Wirt and Wyoming.
The next School Alert System map update is scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 2020, at 5:00 p.m.
All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE School Alert System map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.
*Indicates county changes due to the inclusion of the gold metric.
For information about the data that guides the color-coded map or the Data Review Panel, please contact the DHHR at DHHRCommunications@wv.gov.
For additional details, contact WVDE Director of Communications Christy Day at Christy.Day@k12.wv.us, 304-558-2699 (office).
For general information about COVID-19, please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov or https://wvde.us/COVID19.