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Staff Report
CHARLESTON -- Hospitalizations of COVID-related patients in West Virginia exceeded 1,000 on Tuesday, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The state reported 1,009 patients in a hospital, three short of the 1,012 set on Sept. 24. Hospitalizations were at 976 on Monday.
State health officials have expected to surpass the September benchmark. Fueled by the more infectious omicron mutation of the virus, hospitals could be overwhelmed primarily because of staffing shortages, according to Dr. Clay Marsh, coronavirus leader and adviser in West Virginia.
Members of the West Virginia National Guard are being deployed to hospitals. Up to 350 are expected to be needed, James Hoyer, director of the interagency task force on vaccines, said.
Of the 1,009 patients in a hospital, 671, or 66.5 percent are unvaccinated.
The state reported 218 patients are in an intensive care unit, 179, or 82.1 percent, are unvaccinated. Patients on a ventilator totaled 115 on Tuesday, 106 of those, or 92.2 percent are unvaccinated.
The most ICU admissions and patients on ventilators was 296 in ICU on Sept. 29 and 195 on ventilators on Sept. 25.
WVU Medicine Camden Clark reported 71 patients confirmed with COVID are in the hospital, 27 of those vaccinated.
None of the seven patients in ICU and none of six who are on ventilators are vaccinated.
Active cases continued fluctuating in West Virginia on Tuesday where the latest report puts the number at below 20,000.
The Department of Health and Human Resources reported 19,277 cases, about 2,200 less than the 21,417 reported on Monday.
The state reported 2,748 new cases of the virus were received between Monday and Tuesday. The predominant strain is the omicron variant, which is more transmissible than the delta mutation of the virus, according to Marsh.
The most active cases, which were of the delta mutation, was 29,744 set on Sept. 16, based on the previous guideline that cases were active for 10 days rather than the current five-day guideline.
The daily positivity rate is 24.27% and the cumulative is 7.8 percent.
Active cases in local counties (previous day) are: Wood, 767 (794); Wirt 73 (75 ); Wetzel 156 (187); Tyler 109 (122); Roane 150 (163); Ritchie 81 (75); Pleasants 46 (62); Jackson 120 (149); Gilmer 83 (88); Doddridge 90 (88); Calhoun 59 (73).
Five more residents have died from the virus in the period from Monday to Tuesday morning, raising the death count to 5,650 West Virginians since the pandemic began more than two years ago.
Deaths have been confirmed in Nicholas, Preston, Jefferson and Barbour counties.
"The tragedy of COVID-19 seems almost unimaginable," said DHHR Secretary Bill J. Crouch. "So many West Virginians have been lost to this deadly disease and our sympathies are extended to these families. Please do all you can to prevent further tragedy in our communities by choosing the COVID vaccine and booster."
The County Alert System map based on infection rates saw some improvement from Monday to Tuesday, but not in Wood, Wirt, Tyler, Wetzel, Ritchie, Doddridge, Gilmer and Roane counties, which remain at the red level, the highest level of infection.
Jackson County is gold, mid-level, and Pleasants and Calhoun counties are orange, second highest level.
Forty-nine counties were red on Monday. Forty-one were red on Tuesday, including two green counties, Tucker and Pocahontas, the lowest tier on the map.