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West Virginia continuing to see drop in COVID cases

CHARLESTON — Active COVID-19 cases continued to drop in West Virginia while six confirmed deaths on Wednesday were residents from the region, according to the latest pandemic update from the Department of Health and Human Resources. The state reported 15,280 active cases, a drop of 2,155 cases from 17,435 on Tuesday. Wednesday’s count of active cases was a decline of 14,464 from Friday’s 29,257, the highest number of active cases since the pandemic started in March 2020. Friday’s count broke the previous high of 29,257 set in January. The daily positivity rate is 11.45 percent ...

Active COVID-19 cases again drop in W.Va.

Staff Report CHARLESTON — Active COVID-19 cases dropped another 4,000 from Monday to Tuesday in West Virginia, according to the state Department and Health and Human Resources. The decline has been more than 12,300 cases since Friday. The state reported 17,435 active cases in Tuesday morning’s pandemic update, down from 21,490 in Monday’s report and down from the all-time pandemic high of 29,744 on Friday. The previous high was 29,257 in January during the last surge. Another 1,337 new cases were received in the period between Monday and Tuesday mornings. The daily positivity ...

Justice forms task force to help hospitals overrun with COVID -19

CHARLESTON — As hospitals continue to fill with patients suffering from severe COVID-19 symptoms, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday a new task force aimed specifically at helping hospitals avoid rationing health care. Justice met with state health and COVID-19 response officials Monday morning for a breakfast at the Governor’s Mansion. Speaking Monday afternoon during his COVID-19 briefing, Justice said the result of that morning meeting was a new task force. The task force is called Saving Our Care, a play on the Saving Our Wisdom program that focused on vaccinating ...

Justice says peak is near as active cases drop

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported Monday a drop of more than 8,200 active COVID-19 cases across the state since Friday when an all-time high was set. The state also reported another 54 confirmed deaths from the virus since the last report on Friday, including four from Wood County, on Monday. Active cases were reported at 21,490 in Monday’s pandemic report from the DHHR. The state reported 29,744 cases on Friday, which exceeded the previous high of 29,257 cases in the second week of January. Another 1,318 new cases were received since ...

Officials remember Wood County Schools employee

PARKERSBURG — A longtime Wood County Schools employee died last week due to complications from COVID-19. Les Lipscomb Jr., 65, worked for the district for 22 years, most recently as custodian coordinator for the school system. “Les was a jack-of-all-trades. He could do anything,” said Martin Best, physical plant director for Wood County Schools. “He could do locksmith work, maintenance work and carpentry work. When custodians had trouble with equipment, they would call him first and 90 percent of the time he’d fix it on the spot.” Lipscomb passed away on Sept. 14. Mike ...

Wood County Schools readies COVID test site

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Schools will offer a weekly COVID-19 testing site for students, staff and their families. Testing will be held each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at Lincoln School, located next to Van Devender Middle School. Details and a QR code for pre-registration can be found at https://5il.co/z824. The goal of the COVID response in schools is to keep students and staff healthy and in school, the school system said. Testing, in combination with other disease prevention strategies, helps to reduce the risk of COVID transmission in schools.