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Staff Report
CHARLESTON -- Active cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have dropped below 10,000 in West Virginia, according to the latest numbers in the Department of Health and Human Resources Tuesday pandemic report.
Statewide active cases were at 9,056, a drop of nearly 1,700 cases from the 10,700 cases reported on Monday by the department.
Cases generally have been on the decline, prompting state officials including the governor and Dr. Clay Marsh, state coronavirus leader and adviser, while cautioning residents to continue wearing masks and getting vaccinated and boosted, to say West Virginia has possibly reached the plateau. The most virus cases, which predominantly are the more-infectious omicron strain, was 21,717 on Jan. 22.
Local cases of the virus also have been on the decline, although there have been fluctuations up and down in the past.
Cases in Wood County were reported at 312 on Tuesday, down from 359 on Monday and from 401 on Friday.
Jackson County cases dropped to 30 on Tuesday from 55 on Monday and 87 on Friday. Wetzel County had 72 cases on Tuesday and 90 on Monday. Gilmer County cases were at 33 Tuesday and 52 on Monday.
A nearly 50 percent drop was reported in Pleasants County, 10 on Tuesday compared to 19 on Monday.
Cases in other counties in the region (previous day) are: Calhoun 28 (45); Doddridge 31 (38); Ritchie 49 (60); Roane 53 (64); Tyler 39 (43); Wetzel 72 (90).
Only Wirt County posted a gain, from 19 on Monday to 24 on Tuesday.
Three of the nine green counties on the County Alert System map, the lowest level based on infection rates, are in this region, Pleasants, Jackson and Calhoun counties.
No red counties, the worst level on the map, are in the region, but Ritchie and Gilmer are orange, second highest.
Wood, Wirt, Roane, Wetzel, Tyler and Doddridge counties are gold, mid level.
Only seven counties were red and all were in Southern West Virginia: Lincoln, Mingo, Fayette, Raleigh, Mercer, Greenbrier and Monroe.
While active cases are declining, hospitalizations and deaths will continue for several weeks, according to Marsh.
Hospitalizations were reported at 994 on Tuesday, up six from Monday. About 65 percent of COVID patients are unvaccinated, 644 people.
The state reported 215 patients are in an intensive care unit, 167 of those unvaccinated, while 115 patients are on a ventilator, 91 unvaccinated.
Eleven pediatric patients with four in an ICU and three on a ventilator were reported Tuesday.
At WVU Medicine Camden Clark, 69 patients with confirmed COVID are in the hospital, 21 vaccinated. The hospital reported 11 patients are in ICU, three vaccinated, and seven people on ventilators, two vaccinated.
Twenty-three more deaths from the virus were reported on Tuesday, 15 of those from the data reconciliation by the Bureau of Public Health with official death certificates.
Deaths were reported in Kanawha, Wayne, Raleigh, Berkeley, Preston, Monongalia and Clay counties. Deaths from the reconciliation were in Putnam, Barbour, Kanawha, Hardy, Lincoln, Cabell, Harrison, Ohio, Wyoming, Roane, Logan, Summers and Nicholas counties. They occurred from October through January.
"As our hospitals fill with West Virginians who are extremely ill due to COVID-19, I urge you to get your vaccine or booster shot today," DHHR Secretary Bill J. Crouch said.