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CHARLESTON -- A 23-year-old woman from Jackson County has died from the COVID-19 coronavirus, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said in its Wednesday morning pandemic update.
In addition to the death of the young woman from Jackson County, also dying from the virus was a 34-year-old man from Raleigh County, the state said.
These are someone's children, Gov. Jim Justice said during Wednesday's pandemic briefing.
"I think about my kids and how tragic this would be with one of my children, but these are people's kids, and it's horrible all these people that we've lost," Justice said.
The death count includes many older residents, too.
"But when we lose kids, it just rips my gut out to tell you the truth," he said.
Wednesday's pandemic report included the deaths of a 90-year-old man from Jackson County, a 70-year-old man from Wetzel County, a 90-year-old man from Jackson County and a 65-year-old woman from Tyler County.
Total confirmed deaths since the pandemic began in West Virginia as of Wednesday was at 6,250 residents, the state said.
Thirty-one more deaths were confirmed since the last report on Tuesday. The deaths included residents of Boone, Morgan, Logan, Wyoming, Raleigh, Kanawha, Cabell, Clay, Mercer, Jefferson, Harrison, Berkeley, Barbour, Greenbrier, Randolph and Ohio counties.
"COVID-19 vaccines are safe and FDA-authorized for children ages 5 years and older," DHHR Secretary Bill J. Crouch said. "Please make the choice to protect all eligible members of your family by scheduling appointments for this life-saving vaccine."
Active cases continued to drop on Wednesday to 3,574, the state said. Active cases on Tuesday were 4,028.
The decline only this week was more than 1,100 cases.
Local active cases (previous day) are: Wood 158 (158); Calhoun 18 (14); Doddridge 20 (21); Gilmer 11 (9); Jackson 25 (27); Pleasants 9 (8); Ritchie 30 (27); Roane 27 (35); Tyler 18 (15); Wetzel 29 (23); Wirt 9 (10).
Hospitalizations as of Wednesday were at 596, the first time they have been below 600 since Christmas.
Of the 596, 370, 62.1 percent, are unvaccinated. The state reported 135 patients in an intensive care unit, 104 of those, 77 percent, are unvaccinated. Seventy-eight patients are on ventilators, 71, or 91 percent, are unvaccinated.
Ten pediatric cases are in the hospital with two in an ICU and one on a ventilator.
Based on the infection rates, Wetzel, Tyler, and Doddridge went from green, the lowest level on the County Alert Map, to yellow, second lowest.
Ritchie went from yellow to gold, mid-level.
Wood and Roane remains at yellow. Pleasants, Wirt, Jackson, Calhoun and Gilmer remain green.
No counties were red on the map.