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CHARLESTON – West Virginia appears to be reaching a milestone in COVID-19 cases with a slight decrease in hospitalizations, although deaths remain high and vaccinations remain low compared to other states.
“It’s hard to sit here and say that things are improving, but you will see from our numbers that we have been in the eye of the storm.” Governor Jim Justice said in his coronavirus briefing Monday from the State Capitol Building. “I think things are starting to get a little better, but for crying out loud for these families and loved ones, things are pretty tough right now.”
According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, active cases of COVID-19 in the state have fallen more than 9% in the past seven days, from 13,542 active cases last Monday to 12,284 active cases Sunday.
Hospitalizations due to serious COVID-19 infections also continued to decline slightly, from 977 hospitalizations last Monday to 915 hospitalizations on Sunday. The use of intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients increased from 292 to 269 during the same period.
While many hospitals in the state remain on high alert, any slight drop in hospitalizations could help ease the strain on West Virginia’s healthcare system. According to the US Department of Health and Human Resources, total use of state hospitals fell from 4,653 beds last week to 4,594 beds on Monday.
Intensive care use in the state fell from 590 beds last week to 571 beds on Monday, although 42.3% of intensive care beds are used for COVID-19 patients. According to DHHR, 82.8% of COVID-19 hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, with 87.7% of COVID-19 intensive care beds being used to treat unvaccinated people.
“Of course, we know that the number of hospitalizations is still high, although we have seen positive trends”, said Dr Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar. “We also know that people continue to get very sick when they are infected with this variant of COVID-19, especially those who are not vaccinated. “
State officials have said in the past two weeks they believe West Virginia has passed the peak of what some are calling the delta wave, named after the COVID-19 variant that has ravaged India for the first time in the spring. After falling to 882 active cases on July 9, active cases peaked at 29,744 on September 16. Active cases between September 16 and Sunday fell nearly 59% and represent the lowest number of cases since August 25 after the delta wave began.
As active COVID-19 cases are on the way back down with hospitalizations starting to follow suit, it could be another two weeks before COVID-19 deaths peak during the delta wave of l ‘State. According to the DHHR, the state has reported 47 deaths since the state’s last coronavirus dashboard update, bringing the state’s total death toll to 3,769.
One of the deaths reported on Monday was a 21-year-old man from Braxton County and a 20-year-old man from Berkeley County.
“You really get used to hearing 88, 70, 73 years old … in that, we lost a 20-year-old”, says justice. “This thing concerns us all and we better know it… Whether it is a 20 year old or a 104 year old, we have lost the wisdom and we have lost an absolute opportunity.”
According to New York Times COVID-19 data for all 50 states and territories, West Virginia ranks second behind Idaho in daily average deaths. West Virginia has an average death per day of 28.4 deaths, or 1.59 deaths per 100,000 people.
West Virginia also leads the country with the lowest vaccination rate according to the New York Times. Justice said the state had now vaccinated 1,013,000 West Virginia. According to the DHHR, 49.5% of West Virginia’s 1.79 million people are fully vaccinated, with 56.9% of eligible West Virginia aged 12 and over being fully vaccinated.
“Please get fully immunized so that we can reduce stress on our hospital systems”, said Marsh.
In other news, West Virginia has until midnight today to sign up for the final Phase II giveaway of the Do It For Babydog Incentive Lottery Incentive Lottery. The final giveaways will be announced on Friday. The lottery is open to all West Virginia people who have at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Prizes include college scholarships, luxury sports cars, fishing boats and pontoons, $ 150,000 for a dream wedding, free gasoline for 10 years, season tickets to games University of West Virginia and Marshall University football and basketball, ski season passes, ATVs and side-by-sides and zero-turn lawn mowers.
“(Babydog) is a face in all of this tough stuff and you might have thought it was all silly, but at the end of the day he’s a face that makes us smile”, says justice. “Go get the vaccine. It will make it get better and better… some people get the vaccine because we really pump it up and work it out that way. The bottom line is that it worked.
West Virginia people can register at mustforbabydog.wv.gov.
Steven Allen Adams can be contacted at [email protected].
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