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CHARLESTON -- Four Mid-Ohio Valley residents' deaths were attributed to COVID-19 in the latest report from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
A 78-year-old Roane County woman, an 89-year-old Gilmer County woman, a 77-year-old Jackson County man and an 80-year-old Wood County woman were among 20 deaths listed in the DHHR's Thursday morning report. The others ranged in age from a 59-year-old Kanawha County man to 92-year-old women from Berkeley and Kanawha counties.
There were no deaths reported on Wednesday. During Thursday's online briefing, state officials said the count was based on when deaths are reported and does not indicate a sudden influx of fatalities.
"We publish those as they come in to us," said DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch, noting that after a death, the cause must be determined and a report filed.
Gov. Jim Justice said a clearer picture might emerge looking at the number of deaths over a matter of two or three weeks. The first conclusion that would be drawn, he said, is "this thing's not going away."
There were 1,197 new cases reported between Wednesday and Thursday's updates. With earlier cases moving off of active status, that brought the total to 3,351, up from 3,154 Wednesday.
"It is extremely contagious today," Justice said, referring to the BA.5 omicron variant of the virus.
He continued his call for West Virginians to be vaccinated and get recommended booster doses.
Active case counts in the Mid-Ohio Valley Thursday (Wednesday) were: Calhoun, 8 (8); Doddridge, 7 (7); Gilmer, 8 (6); Jackson, 29 (28); Pleasants, 14 (12); Ritchie, 14 (12); Roane, 31 (26); Tyler, 14 (11); Wetzel, 15 (20); Wirt, 6 (4); and Wood, 177 (189).
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID dipped to 327 from 332, but patients in intensive care units increased from 44 to 51. Of those hospitalized, 176 were unvaccinated, meaning they hadn't received a single or partial dose of the initial inoculations, while 34 of the ICU patients were unvaccinated. The vaccinated designation does not take into account whether a person has received any booster shots.
There were 13 patients on ventilators, one more than on Wednesday. Eight of them were unvaccinated.
For the second day in a row, there were half a dozen pediatric hospitalizations, three in an ICU.
While yellow remained the dominant color on the County Alert System map, there was an increase in counties marked with both green, the lowest level, and gold, the middle of the scale. Each county receives one of five color rankings based on the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the preceding seven days or percentage of tests coming back positive in that period, whichever is lower.
Gilmer, Jackson and Wirt counties were among 11 green counties, with others in the area yellow, the second lowest level. Mercer, Mingo, Nicholas and Wyoming counties were gold.