While some Monongalia County teachers are readying for their second doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, the coronavirus is still at work in the district.
The most recent diagnosis is a student at Cheat Lake Elementary School, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said Tuesday.
No additional quarantines were required, though, he said.
The district’s specially designated COVID crew was quickly dispatched for a thorough disinfecting of the building, as per procedure.
Such diagnoses, Campbell said, are inevitable, until everyone is fully vaccinated.
That’s what happens Friday for teachers and employees in the 50-year age range.
For now, though, he said, implications of it all continue to remain infectious.
Students went back Jan. 21, under the hybrid model, by order of the state Board of Education.
A handful of positive cases since then have resulted in the not-so-positive quarantining of more than 250 people, mostly students.
“That’s why we need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Campbell said.
The superintendent is referring to mask-wearing, social distancing, hand-washing all the other pandemic protocols out there.
Compared to their great-grandparents in a nursing facility, children in a school don’t carry as a big a target for the coronavirus.
However, they can still get sick – critically so, sometimes.
A 17-year-old Kanawha County boy died in December from complications of the virus.
Nationally, a total of 2.68 million children across the U.S. have tested positive for COVID through Jan. 21, according to numbers from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Most of those cases have been on the minor side, but don’t count on that as an automatic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions parents.
Especially the new, more contagious variants now lurking, the CDC said.
There’s also MIS-C: That’s multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a condition related to the virus.
The condition lives up to its name, as it can cause lasting damage to the heart, brain kidneys and eyes.
Vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, bloodshot eyes and fatigue are among its symptoms.
It usually affects young people — 21 and younger, health experts say — and can show up around 25 days after an exposure to the coronavirus.
The way to avoid it, health experts say, is by employing all the recognized measures one would use in attempt of the same for COVID-19.
Symptoms of the coronavirus in children include a fever of 100.4 or higher, plus the onset of a cough that sounds “different” – should a child already be suffering from asthma or seasonal allergies.
Headaches and constant stomach upset, including diarrhea and vomiting, can also signal COVD in kids, the CDC says.
*This story has been updated from a previous report that contained incorrect information regarding Monongalia County’s return to school under the hybrid-learning model.
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