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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia in the next week or more may begin to see a decline in COVID-19 cases, the state's coronavirus adviser said Monday.
The state tends to lag behind the rest of the country, Dr. Clay Marsh said.
"We are seeing nationally the beginning of the fall in cases of COVID-19 from the BA.5 variant," he said.
According to the last week's Walgreens COVID positivity index, 37% of tests at their stores came back positive nationwide in the seven-day period, while the rate was 42% in West Virginia, Marsh said during Gov. Jim Justice's Monday morning pandemic briefing.
"We are still hanging up there, but we can anticipate over the next week or a bit more to see our numbers start to decline," Marsh said. "That still doesn't mean that it's not important for people to still protect themselves, as the governor has said."
Five separate studies demonstrate getting the fourth shot, the second booster, for those over 50 and 60 is beneficial to reduce mortality and hospitalizations, he said.
Active cases of COVID-19 have dipped to below 3,000 in West Virginia, according to the Monday morning pandemic update from the state Department of Health and Human Resources
The department Monday reported 2,891 active cases statewide, down from 3,434 identified on Friday. Active cases were above 3,000 each day last week in West Virginia.
Peak active cases were over 29,000 in the initial surge of the pandemic and over 20,000 in a later surge.
Current active cases in local counties (previous report) are: Calhoun, 4 (9); Doddridge, 11 (10); Gilmer, 7 (8); Jackson, 23 (34); Pleasants, 6 (12); Ritchie, 18 (19); Roane, 28 (25); Tyler, 8 (13); Wetzel, 20 (30); Wirt, 6 (10); and Wood, 161 (182).
The state also had 1,896 new cases of the virus reported since the Friday update.
Fourteen counties are green, the lowest level of infection, on the County Alert System map. One county is gold and the remainder are yellow, second lowest.
In this region, Pleasants, Jackson, Wirt, Calhoun and Gilmer are green.
The department also reported three deaths since the Friday pandemic update, raising the number of dead since the pandemic started more than 30 months ago to 7,206. Deaths were confirmed of a 63-year-old man from Putnam County, a 79-year-old woman from Cabell County and a 62-year-old woman from Morgan County.
"Every loss brings grief to family and friends," DHHR Secretary Bill J. Crouch said. "We must do our best to stop this deadly virus by choosing to be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19."
Hospitalizations statewide totaled 333 on Monday, 168 of those unvaccinated. Forty-six patients were in an intensive care unit, 25 unvaccinated, and 13 were on a ventilator, six unvaccinated.
Nine pediatric patients were reported, with three in an ICU.
Hospitalizations are down since Friday, but there remains an influx of patients of 45 to 60 people daily going into the hospital, said James Hoyer, director of the interagency task force on vaccines. Hospital services are impacted at about 500 patients and the concern those numbers could be reached will last until around Labor Day, Sept. 5, or beyond, he said.
"We will continue to watch those numbers," he said.
The department reported 416 staff and 461 residents of long-term care facilities have the virus. The statistics are updated on Fridays.
Seven cases were reported at Stonerise Belmont in Pleasants County, eight at Roane General Hospital, 17 at the New Martinsville Center in Wetzel County, two at the Parkersburg Center, five at Stonerise Parkersburg, eight at the Willows Center and one at Worthington Healthcare.
The Division of Corrections reported 67 inmates and 50 staff are infected. Eighteen are at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County, and two are at the St. Marys Correctional Center.