On Thursday, Dec. 10, the Virginia Department of Health published the latest COVID-19 metrics, also called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Core Indicators. The recent data indicates that both metrics had surpassed the threshold as of Dec. 6. Therefore, the County will revert to 100% distance learning for all students on Dec. 15.

On Nov. 17, the School Board approved the use of COVID-19 metrics to determine the safety of proceeding with hybrid learning. The policy states that if the number of cases surpasses 200 per 100,000 people in a 14-day period, and the rate of positive RT-PCR tests over 14 days is above 10%, then all students will return to 100% distance learning, and implementation of the hybrid model would not progress. 

According to data updated on Dec. 10, over a 14-day period, there have been a total of 394 cases per 100,000 individuals and the percentage of positive RT-PCR tests is 10.4%.

The School Board will be convening on Dec. 15 to discuss how the metrics would inform future decisions on the progression of hybrid learning. As of the time of publication, an official agenda for this meeting has not been released.