Schools in the Blue Ridge area now hold the power for COVID contact tracing, after the Virginia Department of Health was overwhelmed by school contact tracing calls.

Blue Ridge Health District officials made the decision at Wednesday's town hall.

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Ryan McKay, Director of COVID Operations at the VDH Blue Ridge Health District, said it's been challenging to keep track of community cases because of the surge in school cases.

Schools already notified families for contact tracing, so VDH was spending most of their time duplicating those efforts.

That's why starting Monday, schools are on their own, so VDH can focus on community cases.

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"This would allow us to notify those individuals sooner. Then, if they have children in the household or they have contact with a child, then we can notify those before symptoms develop," said McKay.

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