West Virginia schools that are experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 will now be identified daily on the West Virginia Department of Education’s website.
Gov. Jim Justice announced in a virtual press briefing Friday that outbreaks at West Virginia’s primary and secondary schools are defined as two or more cases that are connected to each other.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Education are partnering to update the list daily.
The change comes after reporting by the Charleston Gazette-Mail spurred questions over why cases in schools were not being publicly reported.
West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch said he will be meeting everyday with DHHR to discuss the list.
“We will every day post the outbreaks that are active, the schools, the number of cases,” Burch said, “And we’re even going to post if that outbreak led to a school going to remote learning.”
Burch also noted the Department of Education is hoping to hire more school nurses. He said, right now, there are 450 school nurses employed in the state. New funding from the West Virginia Legislature could help hire more, although Burch did not specify how many new nurses would be hired.