Morgan County students will continue to learn from home this week as the county’s COVID cases have placed it in the “orange” category on the West Virginia Department of Education map which dictates methods of instruction and student activity guidelines.
Last week, county schools were able to distribute Chromebooks to students to use for remote learning. Families have to request the Chromebooks through the school board. The laptops had been delayed in delivery to the county since September.
As of Friday, December 4, health officials said 75 Morgan County residents had active cases of COVID-19, the highly-contagious respiratory disease. There have been two deaths attributed to the disease locally. Public health officials continue to urge residents to wear face coverings while in public and to avoid close indoor contact with people outside their households.
Under the West Virginia Department of Education guidelines, county school systems that are in the orange category operate under the following conditions:
- Schools are closed for in-person instruction. There is remote learning only for students.
- Essential student services such as meals, student engagement and special education services continue.
- Face coverings are required at all times for grades 3-12 when school services are required or needed.
- Athletic/extracurricular activities are limited to conditioning only.
- Marching band activities are limited to outdoors only.
ORANGE status means heightened community COVID-19 transmission of 15 to 24.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 or a 5%-7.9% positivity rate of COVID-19 infection.
