MORGANTOWN — Omicron.
For Donna Talerico, Monongalia County’s deputy superintendent of schools, that’s not just the name of the newest variant to spider-web from COVID-19.
It’s also a kind of one-word shorthand, she said, as it pertains to the school district’s ongoing vigilance in the pandemic.
“We don’t have a crystal ball,” she said, “but we have plenty of other things we can employ.”
Such as the ongoing vaccination clinics for elementary-age students — plus the middle-schoolers who were either too young, or too old, when the district began fronting vaccination clinics last spring.
That’s what happens Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week, she said.
Students between the ages of 5-11 will roll up their sleeves for their second shots Wednesday at Mountainview, Brookhaven, Ridgedale, and Cheat Lake elementary schools.
Mylan Park Elementary, along with Mason-Dixon and Skyview, are on the schedule for Thursday.
Friday’s doses will be administered at Eastwood, North and Suncrest elementary schools.
Meanwhile, the county’s middle-schoolers will receive their first doses those same days at Brookhaven, Mason-Dixon, Mountaineer Middle, Skyview, and Suncrest.
Visit https://boe.mono.k12.wv.us/ and scroll down to the district’s Twitter feed for exact times.
A total of 568 students received their first doses before Thanksgiving break, lining up with more than 500 employees who rolled up their sleeves for boosters.
The district had gone into that break for the week ending in Nov. 19 with 58 new cases reported among students. Seven staffers also presented with positive diagnoses.
For the first time in months, no students or staffers were out on quarantine.
Monongalia, Marion and Harrison counties, in the meantime, were showing orange Thursday on the County Alert Map maintained by the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
Preston County was among the 22 counties in the red, the worst hue on the map for COVID.
Just one county, Tucker, presented as green — the safest color for the contagion.
Talerico said Thursday she was happy the school district could offer the vaccines, since for some households, an in-school clinic might be the only way.
“There are so many unknowns in front of us,” she said.
“We’ll keep going with the vaccines. We made a commitment to our students and their families.”
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