MORGANTOWN — Out like a (COVID) lion?
With two days to go in the month of March, pandemic-related quarantines continue to stack up in Monongalia County’s school district.
The positive diagnosis of Morgantown High student has benched the entire boys junior varsity team – along with 14 additional classmates and a teacher.
That’s upward of 25 students, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said, and it wasn’t immediately known Monday afternoon if it was a member of the team who came down with the virus.
The school on Wilson Avenue wasn’t the only one to come under the shadow of the coronavirus to start the week.
Fourteen students and a teacher at Eastwood Elementary are now isolating after a student tested positive over the weekend, the superintendent said.
However, Campbell said, more light is beginning permeate the edges of that pandemic shadow.
In coming days, the district will begin dealing with positive numbers of a different kind.
April is expected to bring showers of additional vaccines for Mon’s students and their families, Deputy Superintendent Donna Talerico said.
More dosages will be slotted in for students and others in their households, she said.
If you’re 16 and older, you could quality. If you’re a family member living under the same roof, Talerico said, you too will be given the opportunity to roll up your sleeve.
“This way we get everyone,” the deputy superintendent said, “and that’s what we need to do.”
That’s how the vaccination clinic at MHS this past Friday worked for Mon teachers and other staffers, who were also able to register select family members for their Moderna shot.
Numbers were actually down, reported Talerico, who helped stage the event – but “that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” she said.
About 300 doses were administered that day, she said, with the majority being teachers and other second-round employees there to become fully vaccinated.
Some 700 doses were originally available, Talerico said.
“A lot of people who had registered were able to secure their vaccines at different locations,” she said.
“That’s all right with us. “The important thing is just being able to get the vaccine.”
None of the surplus shots were compromised or discarded, she said.
In fact, because of the streamlined process, the full allotment wasn’t even delivered to MHS.
That meant, the deputy superintendent said, not having to deal with thawing or other Moderna particulars.
“We’ll never waste a dose,” she said. “They’re ready to be redistributed to our next clinics.”
Two such clinics are already on the calendar for April 9 and April 23, Talerico said, but they won’t include students.
“Those, we’ll do in school during the day,” she said.
A student must have permission of a parent or caregiver to receive the vaccine.
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