Coronavirus Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Coronavirus Continues To Mutate, Become More Infectious

Dr. Clay Marsh stressed that threats from the coronavirus haven’t gone away. The number of people hospitalized in the state with COVID-19 has increased by 50 in just the last week.

Life may be returning to the way it was before the pandemic, but new strains of COVID-19 are just as contagious as the measles.

During Gov. Jim Justice’s regular COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Clay Marsh stressed that threats from the coronavirus haven’t gone away. The number of people hospitalized in the state with COVID-19 has increased by 50 in just the last week, for example. And he noted that the ages of people getting sick and dying are getting older and older.

“We now have seen about 90 percent of people who have died with COVID-19 over the last month or two be over 65 years old,” he said. “So it’s really pushing out to our older population. And that’s why it’s so critically important that we have people stay up to date with their vaccines.”

Marsh said current variants are up to 170 times more infectious than the initial coronavirus. He noted that nationally, only about 31 percent of Americans over 65 have gotten their updated COVID-19 booster shot.

“The COVID-19 virus continues to mutate at a relatively rapid rate,” Marsh said. “And because of that mutation, it’s constantly making new changes in its genetic structure.”

Marsh explained that BA.5, which the Omicron booster is directed against, was, at the time, the most infectious form of COVID-19 that we had seen. And it compared with the level of infectiousness of the measles virus, which is one of the most infectious viruses ever measured.

These new variants, particularly the BQ.1.1 variant has been assessed and is found to be about seven times more infectious than the BA.5 variants, and about 170 times more infectious than the initial variant from Wuhan, China.

“Despite the fact that more and more people have some form of immunity from getting vaccinated, or being infected and recovering from that infection, we know that these new variants are so infectious, that even being previously infected and recovered, or even having gotten your COVID vaccines is no longer an absolute guarantee that you will not be infected by these new variants,” he said.

But Marsh stressed that the vaccine still protects most people from serious illness.

“There’s a recent paper that came out of Harvard, which looked at all the states and looked at the current risk of either getting infected, reinfected, or having more severe complications and deaths, and West Virginia was number one on their modeling risk state group,” he said. “So it’s really important for us not to let down our guard.”

W.Va. Passes New COVID Milestone

More than a half million West Virginians have now tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic according to the Department of Health And Human Resources online dashboard.

In a state with fewer than two million people, that means more than a quarter of the state has been infected.

Since the start of the pandemic 6,824 West Virginians have died from COVID-19, but Gov. Jim Justice only reported one new death at his regular briefing Monday.

“One gentleman from Kanawha County,” Justice said. “But really and truly we’re really, really delighted that the total number of deaths we’ve seen have gone down and down. But again, keep this gentleman in your prayers.”

There are currently 631 active cases in the state. On the County Alert map, 52 of the state’s 55 counties are in the green and the remaining three are yellow indicating low levels of community spread.

Long Term COVID Symptoms Worse Than Vaccine Side Effects, Say Doctors

Gov. Jim Justice called upon a local physician to add support for his concerns that many state residents fear that the Covid-19 vaccines are unsafe.

Dr. Tom Takubo, a pulmonologist and who is also the Republican Senate Majority Leader from Kanawha County, said he hasn’t treated a single patient with an injury from the vaccine. He noted that the short term symptoms of the inoculation are far less lingering than long term symptoms seen from those who contract the virus.

“If you get the vaccine and you have aches and chills and soreness in your arm, that’s letting you know the vaccine worked,” he said. “In fact, I would almost be a little more concerned if I had no reaction at all to the vaccine.”

On the other hand, every day he sees patients who are still experiencing symptoms months after getting sick with COVID.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar, said those who aren’t vaccinated are five times more likely to be hospitalized and more than 10 times more likely to die than someone who is fully vaccinated.

Health officials said there was a problem with the state’s COVID dashboard displaying the daily information, but Justice said the state’s daily positivity rate is 12.12 percent and the cumulative positive rate is 5.52. There are 27,607 active cases in the state.

The state has set all-time records in three categories: the number of people who are hospitalized at 852; 267 patients in the ICU; and 164 people who are on ventilators.

For reference, Marsh said 852 West Virginians are now hospitalized with COVID compared to the first week of July when there were 52. There are 267 West Virginias in ICUs, but the first week of July that number was 17. And there 164 West Virginians on ventilators today but the first week of July there were six.

The overwhelming majority of those people are unvaccinated, Marsh said. Eighty-five percent of those hospitalized are unvaccinated. Ninety percent of those in ICUs are unvaccinated. And between 91 and 93 percent of those on mechanical ventilators are unvaccinated, he added.

Justice noted there are 89 school outbreaks in 33 counties with five schools closed. Fifty-one out of 55 county school systems have mask mandates for K-12 students. Putnam, Pocahontas, Ohio and Mingo are the only four that do not.

Ventilator Usage Hits All-Time Pandemic High In W.Va. As Hospitalizations, ICU Patients Approach Records

West Virginia hospitals are once again reporting record numbers as the coronavirus pandemic surges on.

Ventilator usage hit an all-time high Thursday, as 111 patients are currently making use of the life-saving breathing machine, according to data released Friday by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. An earlier record of 104 patients on ventilators was set Jan. 10 — just weeks after an end-of-2020 holiday surge.

Other data on pandemic-related hospitalizations continues to head toward record highs.

As of Friday, 714 patients were hospitalized with the coronavirus across the state. A previous record of 818 patients was set on Jan. 5.

The use of intensive care units across West Virginia is also on the rise, with 206 patients. An earlier high mark of 219 patients in intensive care came on Jan. 6.

Gov. Jim Justice acknowledged Friday the recent sharp rise in new cases, hospitalizations and other statistics.

“This situation is really serious,” Justice said. “We’re hanging on, but it is really tough.”

Those advising the governor on the state’s response to the pandemic also offered grim reports about the effect of the coronavirus on West Virginians and the state’s health care system.

“The bottom line, West Virginia, is: People are going to the hospital faster, they’re sicker and they’re younger,” said James Hoyer, the head of West Virginia’s Joint Interagency Task Force.

The current surge of the virus — spurred on by the highly contagious delta variant — has put immense stress on hospital staffing, Hoyer said.

“We continue, at the governor’s direction, to work closely with our hospitals — particularly through the Hospital Association — to monitor concerns related to capacity, staffing, and equipment. We are hitting a peak in the hospitals in West Virginia that are going to be a significant challenge.”

Current projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation show West Virginia is set to hit a peak for hospitalizations and ICU use in late September — posting numbers double or nearly that — compared to current records.

According to those projections, the state is expected to need more than 1,500 hospital beds and about 500 ICU beds for COVID patients on Sept. 25.

Hoyer said those projections track with what public health officials expect to see in the coming weeks.

As the number of new cases continues to rise — including a number of “breakthrough” cases of those who have been fully vaccinated — Justice and other state officials urge residents to get the shots.

“You can rest assured — if you’re not vaccinated, you’re taking one hell of a chance,” Justice said. “That’s all there is to it.”

Hoyer noted that 82% of West Virginians hospitalized in the state are unvaccinated. State data also show 0.63% of fully vaccinated people have developed COVID-19.

While Justice has remained hesitant to reinstate a mask mandate, on Friday he did tease the possibility of having to issue an order to once again halt elective procedures at medical facilities across the state.

W.Va. Officials Say ‘Breakthrough’ COVID Cases On The Rise

“Breakthrough” cases of the coronavirus — meaning those who have been fully vaccinated — are becoming more common in West Virginia. State data show an increase in these cases, as well as breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths, in recent weeks.

Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday that, over the past eight weeks, there has been a 26% increase in new breakthrough cases, a 21% increase in breakthrough cases requiring hospitalization and a 25% increase in breakthrough deaths.

According to DHHR, 0.44% percent of West Virginians who have been fully vaccinated have experienced a breakthrough case of the virus, while 0.007% of those fully vaccinated have died from the coronavirus.

DHHR Sec. Bill Crouch said last week that 53% of breakthrough cases are among those in nursing homes.

To date, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has reported 3,962 breakthrough cases and 62 breakthrough deaths.

But these numbers still point to the protection vaccines offer. Total active cases have increased tenfold in that same time period, according to state data.

Justice said the spike in breakthrough cases and other new cases is cause to remain vigilant as the virus continues to spread.

“We really do need to continue to stay on our toes in every way,” he said.

State health officials said Monday they have not yet sorted through vaccine data on these breakthrough cases, including which vaccine — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson — each of these breakthrough patients had received.

“We don’t have that kind of detail right now,” said State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad, “But, hopefully, we’ll have that in the next coming months.”

Concerns over breakthrough cases come as the federal government aims to roll out on Sept. 20 booster shots for those who have been fully vaccinated more than eight months prior. Justice said last week he’d like to get booster shots as soon as possible to those who were vaccinated six months ago or earlier.

The governor said Monday that despite his intent to push booster shots as soon as possible, some entanglements over agreements between the federal government, states and providers remain at play. Justice said he understands that supplies of vaccines belong to the federal government.

“We’ve still got to wait, because there’s some measures that we thought we could get past and start giving those booster shots right now,” Justice said Monday. “Our people are working upon my direction to try to find a way that we in West Virginia can move right now.”

But the final decision on booster shots comes down to authorization from federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

West Virginia Reports 1,000 New Coronavirus Cases, 4,000 Active, As Delta Spread Surges

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on the rise, West Virginia officials say the delta variant is causing more extreme spread than previous strains of the virus. State officials say the fast-spreading variant could lead to a surge more deadly than previous waves of the pandemic.

West Virginia health officials reported 1,037 new cases of the coronavirus Monday, putting the number of active cases at 4,010. Active cases peaked in January of this year, but were less than half the current number exactly a year ago.

“This is exactly what we’ve been afraid of,” said Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh, the top health official advising Gov. Jim Justice.

Justice and other state officials pointed to the recent uptick in cases, hospitalizations and the use of intensive care and ventilators as the need for all residents to get vaccinated.

“We’re not going to be able to stop this surge that is with us right now,” Justice said, before reiterating that the best defense is vaccinations.

James Hoyer, director of the state’s interagency task force, said data from the West Virginia Hospital Association shows 269 hospitalizations for the coronavirus as of Monday. A year ago, state officials recorded 123 hospitalizations, ahead of that figure peaking at 818 on Jan. 5, according to data from public health officials.

“Look at the trend line. We’re putting our health care workers, our hospitals, in an exceptionally difficult position if we don’t pick up the pace of vaccination,” Hoyer said.

While other statistics, such as ICU hospitalizations and ventilator usage, are not near records during the wave, Justice and his advisers continue to warn that the delta variant may put the state back to the worst moments it has experienced during the pandemic.

Health officials said the delta variant accounts for 91 percent of new cases of the coronavirus. They say data on variant sequencing can be delayed by as much as a week.

Marsh says the worst of the delta variant is still in front of the state — with a potential peak likely to come in the fall.