Yough moves to virtual learning for all students

Students in Yough School District will move to all-virtual classes Wednesday, scuttling plans announced last week to close one of the school buildings for five days after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.

All students will have Tuesday off and will start virtual learning on Wednesday as a result of Westmoreland County having a substantial level of virus transmission, according to a letter from Superintendent Janet Sardon.

The district initially announced on Friday a planned five-day closure of Yough Intermediate Middle School after a second staff member tested positive for the virus. On Monday, Sardon said she hopes the remote learning will be for a short time with an eventual return to in-person instruction for students who want it.

Reopening the district’s buildings will be dependent on Westmoreland County’s community transmission rating on the state’s Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard. The county last week received a rating of “substantial” for having a virus incidence rate of 140 cases per 100,000 residents. Two “moderate” designations must be reached for buildings to reopen, Sardon said.

There were 125 new cases of the virus reported in the last two days, bringing the county’s total to 4,097 cases since March, according to state Department of Health figures. The positivity rate in Westmoreland County slowly began climbing in late June, when it was around 3.5%. The rate has been climbing more rapidly since late September. It’s increased from 5% at the beginning of October to its current rate of about 7.5%.

As of Monday, there have been 54,980 individuals tested in the county, with 50,883 testing negative (a 92.5% negativity rate). The death toll stands at 84.