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Coronavirus

No red or orange on West Virginia COVID map

CHARLESTON — Active COVID-19 cases continued to decline, and no West Virginia counties were in the two highest levels of spread when the County Alert System map was updated Monday morning. The map classifies counties based on the lower of the number of new cases per 100,000 people in a seven- or 14-day period, depending on population, or percentage of tests coming back positive. The lowest level is green, rising to yellow, gold, orange and red. No counties were red or orange, with just seven of 55 in the middle level of gold. Among those were Doddridge, Ritchie and Roane in the ...

Justice hails West Virginia’s improving COVID-19 numbers, recognizes more deaths

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice said many COVID-19 statistics are improving, but the number of deaths remained high during Friday’s online pandemic briefing. “Our numbers and all that are getting much better,” he said after reading the ages and counties of residence of 58 people whose deaths had been attributed to the virus in the last two days. “Surely it’s not good for those folks.” Aside from a 30-year-old Wayne County man, Justice noted only two of the others were younger than 60. “If you’re fully vaccinated and you’re 60 years old, you’re 50 years old, and you ...

COVID claims two more Wood County residents

CHARLESTON — Two residents of Wood County were confirmed as deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus on Friday morning by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. Twenty people were confirmed as deaths Friday from the last report on Thursday by the department. Included were a 70-year-old and an 84-year-old man from Wood County. Deaths also were confirmed in Putnam, Hampshire, Mingo, Logan, Fayette, Kanawha, Jefferson, Berkeley, Wayne, Lincoln, Braxton, Raleigh, Randolph and Wyoming counties. The death toll since the pandemic began was at 6,308 as of Friday. “It is ...

Wood County green on West Virginia COVID map

CHARLESTON — Wood County turned green Thursday on the state’s County Alert System, the lowest level of infection risk. Twenty-eight counties are green on the map. The rest are yellow, second lowest, and four are gold, mid-level. Wood County hasn’t been green for at least six months and not since school started. The map is based on infection rate and percent positivity and a county’s grading is based on the lower of the two statistics. Wood County’s percent positivity is 4.47%, green, while the infection rate is 21.72, yellow. Also green in the region are Wirt, ...

Justice talks Hyperloop as project struggles to stay on rails

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice is seeking an update on Virgin Hyperloop’s future plans for development in West Virginia, as the transportation technology company recently announced layoffs and a change in business strategy. That shift has created some questions as to the future of a ...

Jackson County woman among West Virginia COVID death

CHARLESTON — A 23-year-old woman from Jackson County has died from the COVID-19 coronavirus, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said in its Wednesday morning pandemic update. In addition to the death of the young woman from Jackson County, also dying from the virus was a 34-year-old man from Raleigh County, the state said. These are someone’s children, Gov. Jim Justice said during Wednesday’s pandemic briefing. “I think about my kids and how tragic this would be with one of my children, but these are people’s kids, and it’s horrible all these people ...