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First non-nursing home death: Montcalm High employee dies from COVID-19 complications

Bluefield Daily Telegraph - 9/1/2020

Sep. 1--MONTCALM -- A school employee in Mercer County has died as a result of complications from COVID-19, school officials confirmed Monday.

Assistant School Superintendent Rick Ball said in a statement Monday from the school system that a Mercer County Schools' employee from Montcalm High School passed away over the weekend from complications from COVID-19. The employee's name was not released due to the school system's privacy policies.

"This is a devastating loss for the school system, students and staff of such a close-knit community school," Ball said. "We extend our deepest sympathy to her family, loved ones, and colleagues."

The case was the first non-nursing home COVID-19 related death to occur in Mercer County. All 23 prior COVID-19 deaths in Mercer County were associated with the Princeton Health Care Center, a COVID-19 hot spot in West Virginia.

Amy Harrison, data and information specialist for Mercer County Schools, said that the Montcalm community was aware of the employee's illness.

"Her family put it on Facebook," she said. "The people in the community knew and they have been keeping tabs. She was in prayer chains and prayer lists at churches, and (the family) was putting up updates on how she was doing."

Harrison said the death would not impact the planned reopening of schools on Sept. 8.

"No, school opening is dependent on the color code system we have to follow, what the governor has put forth, as far as the guidelines for starting schools," she said. "Saturday, Sept. 5, is the day we have to look at."

The recent tragedy would not determine whether Montcalm High School was reopening. Like other schools, whether Montcalm High reopens will be determined by Mercer County's color code on Saturday.

Montcalm High School is being sanitized along with the rest of Mercer County's schools in preparation for reopening, Harrison said, adding that all staff are wearing masks at all times in every school.

A football game scheduled for Friday will proceed since Mercer County was code yellow last Saturday, Aug. 29, she said.

"As long as we're yellow and we were yellow Saturday, that dictates the whole week," Harrison stated.

If the county has moved from yellow to orange or red status on Sept. 6, schools will be all virtual instruction.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) has continued recording the numbers of new cases. As of Monday, 50 residents and 38 of Princeton Health Care Center's staff members have contracted the virus.

According to a statement Monday from Princeton Health Care, the center's recent mass testing produced "results of zero new cases of positive residents and zero new cases of positive staff members."

Mercer County topped 300 coronavirus cases Monday, according to the DHHR. The county's cumulative virus count as of Monday morning stood at 310 virus cases (two of those are considered probable cases) along with the 23 deaths from the Princeton Health Care Center.

One positive case of COVID-19 was reported Monday by the DHHR at a Bluefield nursing home.

The Maples Health Center in Bluefield had one positive case involving a staff member, according to the DHHR. No positive cases had been reported as of Monday among the health center's residents.

-- Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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