Monroe sees fifth death from Springfield Center nursing home outbreak

Sep. 1--LINDSIDE -- Monroe County reported its fifth COVID-19 related death Sunday, and all of the deaths were residents at the Springfield Center in Lindside.

"It is with great regret that we have to announce Monroe County's fifth death related to COVID-19, a 72-year-old female resident from Springfield Center," the health department said in a statement. "Our sincerest condolences to his family."

Springfield is a long-term care skilled nursing home which has as of Sunday seen 72 positive cases, with 43 residents and 29 staff. Of those, 67 were still active and three remained hospitalized.

On Sunday, Monroe County has had 120 confirmed cases total, with 80 still active, 36 recovered and a total of seven hospitalized.

The surge that began last month at Springield has also increased the numbers enough to place the county in the red zone on the Department of Health and Human Resources's (DHHR) County Alert System, which indicates a high average number of positive cases over a rolling 14-day period.

Monroe County is the only county in the state in the red zone and the designation has meant the cancellation of all sports this week, including Friday night's James Monroe High School Mavericks' game with Pendleton County.

If the county continues to be in the red zone or even falls back into the orange by Sept. 5, no in-person instruction and no sporting events will be allowed the first week of school, which starts Sept. 8.

The color code system includes green, yellow, orange and red, with green indicating a very low rolling average of new daily cases over a seven-day period for most counties.

For counties with a population under 16,000, like Monroe County, it is calculated over 14 days.

A green or yellow zone means everything is okay to proceed as planned with in-person instruction and sports and other extracurricular activities. In the orange or red, community spread becomes an issue.

After the first week of school, the orange category will allow in-person instruction and sports and band practices, but no games or competitions.

A red zone allows only virtual learning and no sports or extracurricular activities.

Gov. Jim Justice addressed the Monroe County situation during his pandemic briefing Monday.

"We hate like crazy for Monroe County," he said, telling residents to "hang with us."

"We want Monroe County back in the green or yellow as fast as possible," he said.

-- Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

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