Officials roll out vaccine tool as COVID collapses in West Virginia
Trending
CHARLESTON - COVID-19 cases are lower than at any previous point since the start of the pandemic in West Virginia two years ago, but officials are rolling out a new tool to help residents know when it is time to get their next dose or booster.
Gov. Jim Justice and state COVID-19 response officials announced the new COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator on Monday morning.
"Maybe that can help some people to make sure they're getting their booster shot and their follow-up vaccinations if they've only had one shot of Pfizer or Moderna," Justice said. "It's really great work."
The calculator, a project of West Virginia University and the joint interagency COVID-19 task force, is available at vaccinate.wv.gov. The tool will help someone determine what date they need to get the next dose or vaccine, and help them schedule appointments and reminders. The tool does not collect or retain personal information.
"(We) thought it was really important to give all West Virginians a very novel tool that doesn't exist anywhere else," said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state's coronavirus czar. "As we know, a lot of times things change at the Centers for Disease Control, so this tool is really made to help each person in West Virginia determine when it is time for them to get another vaccine."
"Again, to lead the nation with a tool that nobody else has is really neat stuff," Justice said. "On top of all of that, who would have ever really thunk it, whether it be 10 years or 20 years ago, that West Virginia University and its medical center is leading the way across this nation and growing ever more popular. It's an amazing story."
According to data from the Department of Health and Human Resources, COVID-19 vaccinations have largely slowed to a crawl in West Virginia with 56.9 percent of eligible residents age 5 or older fully vaccinated and only 43.3 percent of eligible residents with a booster shot. While 73.9 percent of residents older than 50 have been fully vaccinated, only 54.6 percent the same age group have received boosters.
Out of the 425,208 total cases since COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020, only 19.5 percent of those cases were breakthrough cases of people previously vaccinated. The vast majority of active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have come from unvaccinated residents, with vaccines protecting people from the worst of COVID's symptoms.
As of Monday, active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia were 623 as of Monday, the lowest number of cases since the state saw 882 active cases on July 9, 2021, after the first wave and after the first COVID-19 vaccines became available. That is also a 97 percent drop from the peak of the most recent omicron wave of 21,717 active cases back on Jan. 23.
West Virginia is seeing a seven-day average of 138 new COVID cases each day compared to a seven-day average of 4,037 cases at the end of January during the peak of the omicron surge.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 peaked at 1,097 cases on Feb. 2, creating strain on healthcare workers and requiring assistance from the West Virginia National Guard. But as of Monday, hospitalizations dropped to 198. Severe COVID-19 cases requiring intensive care dropped from 239 on Feb. 1 to 64 as of Monday.
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 have also decreased since the most recent COVID wave, from a seven-day average of 24 deaths per day at the beginning of February to a seven-day average of two deaths per day as of Monday. The state reported five COVID-19 deaths since Friday's update.
"We only have five additional deaths, but it's five too many," Justice said. "We haven't seen a number like five in a long time, so I'm always thankful for anything in regards to this terrible pandemic."
Yet, even with the low number of cases and the continuing drop in hospitalizations, Marsh is watching data coming out of Europe about the BA.2 variant, a sub-variant of the omicron COVID-19 variant. It shares many of omicron's same characteristics, though it is more contagious. BA.2 is causing a spike in cases and hospitalizations in many European countries.
"We know the United States will most likely follow, and West Virginia will be a few weeks behind the United States," Marsh said. "This isn't to try to scare people, but to give people a heads up. We have a very good opportunity right now for us to really focus on immunizing all of our over 50-year-old West Virginians and boosting all of those folks as well."
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.