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Coronavirus

How to legislate normalcy

My Super Bowl has finally arrived, and no, I’m not talking about football. The 2021 legislative session starts Wednesday and I’m simply excited to have 60 days of writing about things other than COVID-19. Little did I know that by the end of last year’s legislative session in March that I’d spend nearly 12 months and almost every other day writing about the coronavirus, my nose in spreadsheets and data, more or less becoming an armchair epidemiologist. Others have had it far worse, dealing with the ongoing effects from COVID infections or mourning the death of a loved one. ...

State officials excited about possible third vaccine option

CHARLESTON – West Virginia officials in charge of COVID-19 response and the state’s successful vaccination effort were pleased to hear about the possibility of a third vaccine option on the horizon. Johnson and Johnson announced Thursday that its Janssen Biotech pharmaceutical division submitted an emergency use authorization to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. “Today’s submission for Emergency Use Authorization of our investigational single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is a pivotal step toward reducing the burden of disease for people ...

Ramps and Rails Festival canceled

ELKINS — The 2021 Annual Ramps and Rail Festival is the latest event to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to cancel the festival, which has become a tradition in the Elkins Town Square, was based on the uncertainties of COVID-19 and public gatherings in the near future, officials said. “This was not an easy decision because we know that people depend on the festival for income, entertainment and community connection,” Anne Beardslee, executive director of the Elkins Depot Welcome Center CVB, said Friday. “To have the festival in April, all the decisions, ...

EHS goes remote due to teachers’ vaccine reactions

ELKINS — Many students and parents were surprised when they learned, via an early morning phone message from Randolph County Schools, that Friday would be a Remote Learning Day at Elkins High School. The phone message stated that classes would be operating remotely due to a staffing shortage at the school. Immediately, concerns rose about COVID-19 causing the change — but vaccinating against the virus was actually the reason. “We just didn’t have enough substitute teachers to staff the building today,” said Randolph County Assistant Superintendent Joseph Arbogast. “We had ...

Officials discuss impacts of COVID-19 on education

CHARLESTON — Education in the Mountain State was the main discussion, as members of the press and interest groups virtually attended the West Virginia Press Association’s annual Legislative Lookahead this week. A panel made up of Higher Education Policy Commission Chancellor Sarah Tucker; State Department of Education Superintendent Clayton Burch; Fairmont State University President Mirta Martin; and Bonny Copenhaver, president of New River Community and Technical College, discussed the effects COVID-19 had on not only learning in PreK-12 but also in colleges and trade schools as ...

Barbour County seeking bus drivers

PHILIPPI — The Barbour County Schools system is suffering from a lack of available bus drivers as students have returned to classes this month in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent of Schools Jeff Woofter has acknowledged the problem, making a public appeal for people to enter the school system’s bus driver training program. “We’ve had several drivers quarantined due to COVID-19,” Woofter told The Inter-Mountain. “It’s just the luck of the draw, with COVID. “We just added one driver to our training program, but we are still encouraging anyone who ...