Howard Gamble

WHEELING – Local students will be returning to schools this week with a different set of COVID guidelines than when they left, and families and faculty should be mindful of the changes.

COVID cases have increased in the months since the 2021-22 school year ended. According to state data, there were 2,706 active cases in West Virginia as of Monday. That’s down from Saturday’s total of 3,029, but much higher than the 1,433 recorded June 24 or the 263 cases recorded April 4.

Wheeling-Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said Monday that students departed their spring semesters with a set of guidelines that have since been rescinded, leaving much of the responsibility to the families or school staff members.

“Schools, day cares, and afterschool programs need to know that this is a large change,” Gamble said. “What we’re doing now is that if there’s a positive in the school, whether it’s a student, teacher, or service personnel, they have their own isolation. If they’re positive, they isolate five days from their first symptom. After they’ve done their five days, they go back to the school or program the next day. That’s still in place.”

The change, Gamble said, comes with the lack of requirement to notify or take action for those who have been in contact with the infected individuals. Schools may do so at their discretion, such as by notifying school nurses or classes, but that information will not be passed on to the health department.

“The big change is with the contacts,” Gamble said. “If we’re a contact … we don’t quarantine now. They should wear a mask, we hope that individuals who are positive will identify their close contacts, … but it’s not a requirement.

“You could have a child in the seventh grade, they do a home test, they’re positive and their parents say to stay home, we’ll notify the school that you won’t be there,” he continued. “There is no requirement for isolation or quarantine of an individual who’s not quarantined within a school – that’s a big change.”

Gamble said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to stress the importance of vaccines, which dramatically reduce the potential for serious health complications arising from COVID-19.

“Above all, that’s the most important thing – the vaccine does drastically reduce negative health outcomes if an individual is positive,” he said. “With the vaccine that’s available, wanting to get back to a more normal state, the quarantine provisions we were using prior to school letting out in the spring are now removed. It makes the schools’ duties a little easier, they don’t have to go around to find all the contacts of the positive (individual), making it a little more normal, and putting that responsibility on the family, parents or staff member that they need to isolate correctly, and hopefully people will get vaccinated.”

Gamble said vaccines are still widely available and encouraged at any county health department and most pharmacies for anyone aged five or older.

Previous years saw mass COVID testing at schools, which Gamble said are still available, but which have become supplanted by the increasing availability of home test kits.

“The most important takeaway is, if you have symptoms of COVID, get tested, get tested at a pharmacy, and know before you go somewhere – a gathering, school, a social event – so we don’t have this virus continuing to circulate within the community. If you can test, find out you’re positive, stay home.”

Gamble also expressed concern with the impending flu season, which in recent years had been mitigated due to health measures in place to stop the easy spread of COVID, such as masking and social distancing.

“We were, for two years, at a level of protection against the flu through masks and social distancing which we probably won’t have now,” he said. “We should anticipate a more normal flu season like previous years. It can go through a school, through communities, through an office building.

“The key is, get tested, know if it’s COVID or the flu, and regardless of testing, if you are symptomatic, stay home. Don’t try to save your sick leave for some benefit later, because if someone’s at school or work, they don’t need to be the next case. We don’t need to spread it around.”