×

Another 20 COVID deaths reported in West Virginia

CHARLESTON — A 42-year-old man Roane County was among the 20 deaths from the coronavirus reported on Monday by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The state also confirmed the deaths of a 76-year-old man from Jackson County and a 74-year-old man from Pleasants County in Monday’s pandemic update.

The death toll since the pandemic started more than two years ago is 5,763 as of Monday, according to the state. In comparison, the population of Princeton is about 5,500.

Deaths also were confirmed Monday of residents from Mercer, Ohio, Jefferson, Kanawha, Harrison, Monongalia, Berkeley, Randolph, Mineral and counties.

“Protect your loved ones by scheduling a COVID vaccine or booster,” said department Secretary Bill J. Crouch. “Both are available at clinics, pharmacies, local health departments and pop-up events statewide.”

The number of active cases is generally trending downward.

Active cases on Monday were reported at 15,490 with 1,710 new cases received since the last report on Sunday. Active cases were 17,468 on Sunday and 17,098 on Friday.

For the first time since omicron became the dominant strain of the virus in West Virginia, the transmission rate, called the Rt number, has dropped below 1 to 0.97, Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia coronavirus leader and adviser, said.

A rate higher than one means the virus is more rapidly replicating and spreading.

Marsh was asked Monday morning during the governor’s pandemic briefing what would have to happen for the virus to move from a pandemic to an endemic phase. It depends in part on people’s attitudes and behaviors, Marsh said.

“I think for a lot of people, they’ve made that turn, where they are willking to take some risk, live with the virus, dance with the virus, as we’ve talked about before,” he said. “But importantly, we need enough immune responsiveness for enough of our population that instead of having new variants circulate dramatically across the world … that it stops that worldwide spread and isolates the spread into much smaller areas.”

Some people are hoping the much-higher infectiousness of the omicron variant will slow the spread, Marsh said. Further mutations and variants will play a role, he said.

“But as we’ve many, many times experienced with COVID-19, when we expect COVID to take a left turn it takes a right turn,” he said.

All counties in the region posted lower active case numbers from Sunday. Local active cases are (previous report): Calhoun 40 (63): Doddridge 69 (93); Gilmer 41 (49); Jackson 83 (110); Pleasants 38 (47); Ritchie 79 (82); Roane 82 (96); Tyler 70 (81); Wetzel 151 (168); Wirt 37 (41); Wood 563 (627.)

Statewide, hospitalizations were 1,070 on Monday, of which 69.1 percent, or 739 people, were unvaccinated. The state reported 235 patients in an intensive care unit, 66.4 percent or 156 people unvaccinated. Ninety-eight of the 116 patients who are on ventilators are unvaccinated.

The state reported 16 confirmed pediatric covid patients with three in an ICU and one on a ventilator.

At WVU Medicine Camden Clark, 77 COVID patients have been admitted, 27 of those are vaccinated. Eleven patients are in the ICU, two vaccinated, and four patients are on a ventilator, none vaccinated.

Wood County was upgraded on the County Alert System map based on infection rates. Wood was red, the worst level, but has been changed to orange, second worst.

Also orange in the region are Wirt, Calhoun and Gilmer counties. Tyler, Wetzel, Ritchie and Doddridge counties are red. Pleasants and Roane are mid-level gold. Jackson is yellow, second lowest.

Thirty-one counties are red in West Virginia. Tucker is the only green county, the lowest level of alert on the map.

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today