Trending
CHARLESTON -- Wood County turned green Thursday on the state's County Alert System, the lowest level of infection risk.
Twenty-eight counties are green on the map. The rest are yellow, second lowest, and four are gold, mid-level.
Wood County hasn't been green for at least six months and not since school started.
The map is based on infection rate and percent positivity and a county's grading is based on the lower of the two statistics. Wood County's percent positivity is 4.47%, green, while the infection rate is 21.72, yellow.
Also green in the region are Wirt, Pleasants, Jackson, Calhoun and Gilmer. Wetzel, Tyler, Ritchie, Doddridge and Roane are yellow.
While the colors of the map are favorable, another 38 deaths from the virus have been confirmed in West Virginia, according to Thursday's pandemic update from the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The death count stands at 6,288 residents since the pandemic began in West Virginia more than two years ago. Of the 5,189 deaths occurring after vaccines became available in December 2020, just less than 88 percent were unvaccinated.
The confirmations on Thursday include 19 deaths found in the data reconciliation with death certificates by the Bureau of Public Health. Among the deaths was a 30-year-old man from Wayne County and a 90-year-old man from Wetzel County.
The deaths of a 77-year-old man from Jackson County, a 71-year-old woman from Calhoun County and an 83-year-old man from Wetzel County were listed in the deaths reported in the 24-hour period from Wednesday to Thursday morning. Other deaths were in Putnam, Kanawha, Harrison, Mercer, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Lincoln, Barbour, Summers, Marion and Preston counties.
Reconciled deaths were confirmed in McDowell, Hampshire, Braxton, Cabell, Pocahontas, Wayne, Boone, Preston, Raleigh, Barbour, Marshall, Nicholas, Cabell, Jefferson, Putnam and Kanawha counties in January and February.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to each of these families," said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. "Help prevent or severely lessen the effects of this virus by choosing to have all family members ages five and older receive the COVID vaccine."
While the unvaccinated are most of the deaths, the unvaccinated also are most of the admissions in state hospitals, in intensive care units and on ventilators, according to the state.
The state reported 588 people with COVID complications are in the hospital, 377, or 64.1 percent, unvaccinated. ICU admissions were at 133, 105, or 78.9 percent unvaccinated. Seventy-six patients were on a ventilator, 66, or 86.8 percent, unvaccinated.
Ten pediatric cases were reported with two in an ICU.
Current active cases continue to decline and were reported at 3,336 on Thursday, 238 fewer than on Wednesday. New cases received since the Wednesday report were 1,240.
The most active cases, after a January change in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was 21,717 on Jan. 22.