Despite decreasing covid transmission rates, Westmoreland schools still apt to shut down with positive cases - TribLIVE

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Despite school districts in Westmoreland County making strides to restore a sense of normalcy for students, they still feel the pinch of state guidelines when it comes to closing buildings because of coronavirus cases.

So far this week, Hempfield, Norwin, Belle Vernon Area and Derry Area districts have been forced to close buildings at the recommendation of the state’s health and education departments in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus while giving officials an opportunity to conduct contact tracing.

The recommendation to close district buildings, all of which are offering some form of in-person learning, came as case numbers continually increased in secondary schools over a 14-day rolling period. At Hempfield, the high school had eight cases. There were six at Norwin, seven at Belle Vernon and six at a high school/middle school complex at Derry.

Those numbers were coupled with Westmoreland County showing a substantial level of community spread, the minimum benchmark for which is 100 cases per 100,000 residents. The county transmission rate for the week of April 16-22 was 107.5 per 100,000 people, according to the state’s covid-19 early warning monitoring system.

When that level of community spread is reached, districts offering in-person learning must follow state guidance that takes those factors into consideration to determine whether students should quarantine or buildings need to close, according to Jason Conway, executive director of the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.

“So, what’s happened is now that we are in substantial and offering in-person instruction, districts have to follow the recommendation on this chart,” Conway said, noting the requirements stem from an agreement reached in November between districts and the state that says schools must follow guidance when there is substantial spread.

After community transmission rates return to low or moderate for two consecutive weeks, that agreement no longer applies, he said.

The county may be heading toward those lower levels of transmission as the number of covid-19 cases in the county seemingly is shrinking. According to Conway, in the week of April 9-15, community transmission rates neared 150 per 100,000 people. In the latest data available, those rates decreased by 43 cases.

The county’s case average also shrunk in the past two days. As of Wednesday, the seven-day case average was 84, the lowest it’s been since late March.

That downward trend is expected to continue in both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties as people begin gathering outdoors and the number of people getting a covid-19 vaccine increases, according to Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Covid in schools

But, as cases in the county stand, districts largely are feeling impacts from students who contract the virus from extracurricular activities or community-based events. At those events, mitigation measures such as wearing masks and social distancing may not be enforced as strongly as they are in schools, officials said.

“Overall rates in the county may be going down while rates are spiking within the school, and that could just be based on where kids and staff members have been and whether or not they’re vaccinated,” said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.

Williams, citing several studies, added that transmission rates within school buildings remain low.

Regardless of where a student contracts the virus, if they go to school during their infectious period, the school is required to take action, DiRocco added.

According to Williams, state guidance was created last year when schools were forced to shutter as the pandemic first spread across the region. At that time, little was known about the virus and how it spread, leading to guidance requiring districts to deep-clean buildings when cases were reported.

Now, Williams said, studies show the virus is less likely to spread on surfaces.

The most important thing schools can do is require masks and social distancing, he said. Those measures also protect against variants like the U.K. variant found in Allegheny County in February, something an early study shows is not more severe in children like it could be in adults.

“What that means is not that we should not worry about it or monitor it, but it means that, if children in school test positive for covid, that child should isolate at home for 10 days,” Williams said. “But, in general, there’s no reason to close the school.”

For Conway, however, having to temporarily close buildings is just a bump in the road as districts make their way back to what school looked like pre-pandemic.

Conway noted that more than 1,900 Westmoreland school staffers received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which, he said, has helped districts reopen their doors to in-person learning while also limiting the number of times schools have had to shutter temporarily. It was not clear how many staffers received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.

“For the most part, more schools are in session now than they have been all year long,” DiRocco said. “Overall, we’re seeing a positive trend of districts trying to get their kids back into the schools.”

Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1203, mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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