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CHARLESTON -- Nine more residents from the region are among the confirmed dead from the COVID-19 virus reported on Friday by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
Four of the deaths were in the regular pandemic update and five were from a routine reconciliation by the Bureau of Public Health with the official death records.
The state reported the deaths of a 77-year-old man from Ritchie County, a 72-year-old woman from Wood County, a 62-year-old woman from Wood County, a 62-year-old man from Jackson County, a 60-year-old man from Ritchie County, a 30-year-old man from Wetzel County, an 85-year-old man from Pleasants County, a 60-year-old woman from Roane County and an 82-year-old woman from Wetzel County.
During his COVID briefing Friday, Gov. Jim Justice paused in reading the list of deaths when he came to the 30-year-old from Wetzel County.
"Younger than both of my children -- hard to believe," he said.
The death count rose by 52, including the 17 from the reconciliation, from Thursday to Friday to 3,722 since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to the state.
"We extend our sympathy to all of the loved ones impacted by these deaths," said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. "To West Virginians who are eligible, but not yet vaccinated, know that getting vaccinated is the key to stopping the spread of COVID-19."
State officials believe West Virginia is at or near the peak in the latest COVID-19 surge, exacerbated by the unvaccinated and the more-infectious delta variant which has caused record-setting infections and hospitalizations.
"I really believe that there's a really good chance that we're going to go down … but there's no guarantee," Justice said.
Total active cases in West Virginia slightly rose in the 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday, from 13,736 to 14,014. Also reported were 1,645 new cases received in the same period from Thursday to Friday.
Locally, active case numbers on Friday (previous day) were: Calhoun, 33 (32); Doddridge, 65 (65); Gilmer, 39 (35); Jackson, 261 (257); Pleasants, 68 (70); Ritchie, 102 (102); Roane, 158 (146); Tyler, 107 (108); Wetzel, 158 (149); Wirt, 59 (64); Wood, 759 (722).
Hospitalizations around the state hover at peak levels with 958, 269 in an intensive care unit and 172 on ventilators.
At WVU Medicine Camden Clark, of the 77 patients with COVID-19, 67 are unvaccinated, according to numbers provided by the hospital. Sixteen of 18 patients in the ICU are unvaccinated and 14 of the 16 on ventilators are unvaccinated.
Memorial Health System in Marietta reported 59 COVID-19 hospitalizations with 52 of those unvaccinated. Eleven patients, all unvaccinated, are in the ICU with 11 people on ventilators, all unvaccinated.
Of the 2,612 deaths since the start of vaccinations, 6.31 percent are unvaccinated residents, called breakthrough cases, the Department of Health and Human Resources said. Of the 176,334 cases since vaccinations began, about 7 percent are breakthrough cases.
At the worst level of red on the County Alert System map based on the lower of infection rate and percentage of tests coming back positive are Wood, Wetzel, Wirt, Tyler, Pleasants, Doddridge, Ritchie, Jackson an Roane counties. Calhoun is yellow, second from the least severe, and Gilmer is gold, midway on the severity chart.
Tyler, Roane, Pleasants and Doddridge were downgraded to red on Friday.
Calhoun was green on Thursday.
Thirteen counties were orange on Friday, three were gold, four were yellow and two, Tucker and Pendleton, were green.