COVID-19 Death Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Distribution Of COVID-19 Deaths Uneven Across W.Va.

Earlier this week, West Virginia surpassed 7,500 COVID-19 deaths. But the virus has not had an equal impact everywhere. Across the country, some states and communities continue to be harder hit by the pandemic than others, and West Virginia is no exception — even varying by county.

Earlier this week, West Virginia surpassed 7,500 COVID-19 deaths. But the virus has not had an equal impact everywhere.

Across the country, some states and communities continue to be harder hit by the pandemic than others, and West Virginia is no exception — even varying by county.

Kanawha County is the largest in the state, with more than 180,000 residents. That’s roughly 10 percent of West Virginia’s population, and, as would be expected, the county makes up about 10 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths.

For the most part, bigger counties around the state have more deaths, proportional to their size. The same goes for smaller counties and fewer deaths. But there are a few outliers.

One of the biggest outliers is Monongalia County, which accounts for just under 6 percent of the state’s population, but less than 3 percent of all deaths in West Virginia.

“In COVID, we found that probably the single greatest risk factor, especially early in the disease with the Wuhan strain, of a predictor of mortality was age,” Dr. Steven Eshenaur, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said. “The older you are, the worse this disease is on you.”

Eshenaur points to the significant difference in the age of Kanawha and Monongalia counties’ populations as a likely explanation for the discrepancies in death rates.

“Kanawha County has 21.6 percent of our population that is over 65,” he said. “Mon County has 13.5 percent of its population over age 65. It’s almost half.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans age 55 and older account for 90 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the country.

CDC data also shows that the risk for death from COVID-19 grows dramatically as age goes up. Compared to 18-29 year-olds, 40 to 49 year-olds are 10 times more likely to die from COVID-19. For those aged 50 to 65, they are 25 times more likely.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that older populations are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 deaths.

Dr. Lee Smith is the health officer and director of the Monongalia County Health Department, and has led the county’s pandemic response for the past two-and-a-half years.

“Right now, we have [the] total number of deaths, [the] total number of cases,” Smith said. “The areas that we don’t have right now is how many of the people who contracted COVID were smokers, were elderly. We know that those are the at-risk populations.”

Smith cautions drawing conclusions from what he calls an incomplete picture. He said it may be years before we understand how and why COVID-19 impacted communities differently, if ever.

“Public health is going to be studying COVID probably for the next decade, if not more,” he said. “We saw that this impacted the elderly more at the beginning. So I think that it’s a worthy line of inquiry because this is going to be a cumulative knowledge built up over time.”

One thing that both health officers can agree on is the impact of vaccines on the pandemic and deaths. Eshenaur calls vaccines the single most effective tool we have to protect individuals, but the statewide rate of distribution for booster shots is at just 32 percent.

Smith said he can relate to the public’s COVID-19 fatigue.

“I think that because of COVID fatigue, many people are wanting just to not consider it anymore, and I certainly understand that because our staff is as fatigued as anyone with COVID,” Smith said. “But it hasn’t gone away completely. It was said early on, ‘My mask protects you, your mask protects me, my vaccine protects you, my, your vaccine protects me.’ I think that if we can move beyond the politics, and get to a point where we’re doing this as a community, that’s going to be the better position.”

COVID-19 fatigue and vaccine complacency could spell trouble in the coming weeks and months, as COVID-19 begins to interact with other respiratory viruses that surge with colder weather.

“We are moving into, the buzzword now is a ‘tridemic’ of flu, RSV, and COVID all potentially hitting their peak this fall,” Eshenaur said. “It could be very bad, especially when you see people that get concomitant illnesses, that is they get two illnesses at the same time, like flu and COVID, or RSV and COVID together.”

COVID-19 deaths are slowing in West Virginia, and that may be causing some people to let their guard down, but vaccine hesitancy combined with flu and RSV outbreaks could spell a long winter for the state.

Wetzel County Has State's Highest Rate Of COVID-19 Deaths

One out of every 157 people have died from COVID-19 in Wetzel County, according to state health department data.

In northern West Virginia, nestled right below the state’s northern panhandle, is Wetzel County.

It’s small and rural. The Ohio River snakes past the county seat of New Martinsville, birthplace to famed West Virginia University football coach Bill Stewart.

The county is home to around 14,000 people and has experienced the state’s highest rate of death from COVID-19.

One out of every 157 people have died from the virus, according to state health department data.

Carla McBee, the county medical examiner, said the local funeral homes couldn’t keep up with the demand at the height of the pandemic.

“We had funeral homes just having two and three and four funerals a week, which is not normal here,” she said.

McBee also responded to the pandemic as a county commissioner who approved an additional $200,000 in funds to agencies for protective gear. The commission also approved increased funding for the local food pantry to help the increased number of people who were out of work and in need of food, she said.

“We have had a lot of agencies in here saying, ‘Our budget is maxed. Can you assist us with funding?’ And we have,” McBee said.

Ninety-two people have died in Wetzel County from COVID-19 as the county reported another death as the state reached 7,500 deaths from virus.

For comparison, Kanawha, which is the state’s most populated county with more than 180,000 residents and 810 COVID-19 deaths, the death rate is one out of every 223 people.

The rate of death in Wetzel County stretched other agencies to their limit.

Steve Yoho, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, said the department stopped planning for natural disasters and emergencies, and instead, focused on helping the health department.

“We helped [the health department] put on the clinics and do testing and do shots,” he said. “Basically, for a two-year period, we didn’t do emergency management and became part of the health department.”

Employees with the Wetzel-Tyler Health Department have been on the front lines of the pandemic, serving a largely elderly population. DHHR data shows around 80 percent of residents 61 and older have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Health department administrator Ashley Guiler said they didn’t have enough staff to keep up with the state’s requirements for pandemic response.

“The local health departments weren’t provided any funding to allow us to obtain any staff to actually fight COVID-19, so we relied on our community partners to volunteer for us,” Guiler said. “We had a lot of retired nurses, we had a lot of EMS people join us to administer the shots on their days off from their regular jobs.”

The all hands on deck response to the pandemic meant other health department programs like preventative care and women’s health care were stalled for two years, Guiler explained.

“Now on the rebound, we’re seeing an increase in cancer. We’re seeing an increase in chronic diseases,” she said.

The pandemic has impacted Wetzel County in another way, according to McBee, as it overlapped with the county’s problems with substance use disorder.

“I believe our issues are a lot of poverty. We don’t have a lot of jobs in our county. People just don’t see a way out, and they don’t have the finances to get a way out, so they turn to drugs,” she said.

Nationwide, drug overdose deaths accelerated during the pandemic, and in West Virginia, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed nearly twice as many people died from an overdose in 2022 compared to 2016.

“Most people tell me they do it because they lack coping skills. I don’t see that getting any better. I just think everything looks bleak, and that’s why people start it,” McBee said.

Milestone COVID-19 Deaths A Reminder Pandemic Isn’t Over

As of Tuesday, more than 7,500 West Virginians have died from COVID-19, a reminder that the pandemic is not over.

According to data published by the New York Times, West Virginia has the fourth highest COVID-19 death rate of any state in the country. Only Mississippi, Arizona and Alabama rank higher.

For every 100,000 West Virginians, 418 have died from COVID-19, higher than the national average of 321 deaths per 100,000 residents.

COVID-19 deaths have slowed. Seven hundred fewer West Virginians died over the past 12 months than during the same period the previous year.

That may be in part to more vaccination, but with a vaccination rate of 59 percent, West Virginia lags well behind the national average vaccination rate of 68 percent.

If West Virginia continues at this rate, COVID-19 deaths could surpass 10,000 by the end of 2023.

Recent trends have pointed towards an improvement across the state. The 7-day death average has remained in the single digits since March, and hospitalizations are on a downward trend after a concerning summer surge. Active cases have also remained under 1,000 for the past week.

However as temperatures continue to drop, state leaders have expressed concern that colder weather and a resurgent influenza virus will bring another wave of death this winter.

Justice Concerned With Cold Weather Impact On COVID-19

Gov. Jim Justice is concerned with the impact cold weather will have on the state’s COVID-19 numbers.

During a short press briefing Monday morning, Justice read out 12 additional COVID-19 deaths in the state, bringing the state’s total to 7,379.

At the end of the conference, Justice compared the COVID deaths to the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster that killed 12 miners.

“Sago Mine Disaster, 12 people. You know how much it was all over the TVs and everything else,” Justice said. “Twelve people right here, and we’ve just gotten to where we’re used to it.”

Justice urged West Virginians to get vaccinated against the virus before the onset of colder weather in the coming weeks and months.

“It’s gonna get colder, and we’re going to go indoors, and the more we’re indoors, we’re closer we are together,” he said. “And the likelihood of this spreading even faster, you know, is off the chart of where it is right now.”

W.Va. COVID-19 Numbers Continue to Climb

The Friday report from the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) shows 3,414 active cases, a jump of nearly 400 from the day before.

West Virginia’s active COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue a steady climb upward.

The Friday report from the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) shows 3,414 active cases, a jump of nearly 400 from the day before.

The telltale number of COVID-19, hospitalizations, jumped up 20 in one day, and now stands at 361. Sixty four patients are in the ICU and 19 are on ventilators.

The state’s COVID-19 death count stands at 7,184, with 11 added to Friday’s DHHR report.

In a release, DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch urged West Virginians to “make the choice to be up-to-date with COVID vaccines and boosters to help stop this loss of life.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Unreported COVID-19 Deaths Verified By National Center

The reconciliation comes after the federal agency suffered an outage relating to a data system update. It left the center unable to verify deaths across all 50 states from June 6 to June 20.

At Friday’s regular COVID-19 briefing, 36 unreported deaths in West Virginia were verified by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The reconciliation comes after the federal agency suffered an outage relating to a data system update. It left the center unable to verify deaths across all 50 states from June 6 to June 20.

Two recent deaths were also announced during Gov. Jim Justice’s COVID-19 briefing. These include the deaths of an 81-year old man from Preston County and a 67-year old woman from Raleigh County.

This brings the total in-state deaths to 7,056 since the start of the pandemic.

There are currently 2,135 active coronavirus cases in West Virginia. That number includes 196 hospitalized, 23 ICU patients, and six patients on ventilators, according to Justice and the Department of Health and Human Resources. The number of active cases has increased by around 200 since Justice’s last COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday.

Nearly 55 percent of all West Virginians are fully vaccinated, according to the DHHR’s COVID-19 dashboard. Children above the age of 6 months old are now also eligible for the vaccine as of last week.

Nearby vaccine sites can be found online or at 1-833-734-0965. COVID-19 testing sites can also be found online.