Tag: COVID-19 Death

4 Die From COVID-19 At W.Va. Assisted Living Facility

Four people have died due to COVID-19 at an assisted living facility in Mercer County, West Virginia.

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported that 12 of the 14 residents at Rockin’ Chair Residential Care in Lerona tested positive for the coronavirus, according to owner Airwana Arnett. Lerona is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Bluefield.

One of the residents who died was in Hospice care, she said, and two had severe underlying medical conditions. “The other loss was a shock,” she told the paper. “He got sick and could not be revived.”

The other eight who caught the virus are recovering, in addition to four of the 10 staff members who became infected, she said.

She said six residents and “several” staff members had received the coronavirus vaccine. “The ones vaccinated did not get the bad symptoms,” she said. “The shot may have saved their lives.”

She said some staff and family members of residents refused to receive the vaccine. A pharmacy had offered the shots at the care center.

West Virginia, which has one of the oldest and most at-risk populations, rapidly deployed doses of the vaccine to nursing homes in December.

The Mercer County nursing home had not previously reported any deaths from the virus. Long-term care facilities have accounted for 801, or about 28%, of the state’s 2,872 virus-related deaths, health data show.

The facility is being tested twice a week. “We have got it under control,” Arnett said. “We are going to make it.”

WV Hits 2,000 COVID-19 Deaths, Making Strides Vaccinating At-Risk Groups

Gov. Jim Justice has recognized those lost to COVID-19 at every virtual press briefing, but today marked a milestone.

“We’re going to remember them, we’re going to thank them for all that they gave us every day,” Justice said.

West Virginia, on Friday, surpassed 2,000 deaths due to COVID-19. It took several months — from the start of the pandemic to mid December — for the death toll to creep up to 1,000. Six weeks later, the count doubled.

Still, health officials are hopeful given a recent downward trend in daily active cases, despite predictions of a post-Christmas surge.

“We are surprised as well that we didn’t see a bump in our numbers,” said State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad. “But I think we need to also be vigilant and not take it for granted.”

As the state begs the federal government for more vaccines, Amjad said it’s too soon to see vaccinations curb a significant loss of life.

One promising announcement of the day: all willing nursing home and assisted living residents have been fully vaccinated.

The state also announced efforts to close the racial gap in COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

“With proper resources, we’ll be the same way recognized across the country as vaccinating people of color as we are for the general population,” said the Rev. James Patterson. He works with the Partnership of African American Churches, which has been contracted to help get testing out to Black communities throughout the state. At the press briefing, Patterson and state officials said they’d carry those same efforts into vaccination.

All 55 counties will have a vaccination clinic next week. The number of doses available will be based on the senior population of each county.

Since Monday, 133,000 West Wirginians have registered to get their first shot using the new, centralized Everbridge system. Anyone can register online now.

W.Va. Reports 23 More Virus Deaths, Toll Up 11 Percent In Past Week

West Virginia health officials have reported 23 deaths from the coronavirus, pushing the state’s toll 11 percent higher over the past week alone.

The Department of Health and Human Resources said the latest victims ranged in age from 55 to 99. Harrison and Mineral counties reported the deaths of three residents from each county.

In the past week, 11 virus-related deaths have been reported each from Mineral County, a county of about 27,000 people along the Maryland border, and in Marshall County, population 31,000 in the state’s northern panhandle bordering Ohio and Pennsylvania.

At least 758 deaths have been reported in West Virginia since the pandemic began.

The number of people in hospital intensive care units for the virus hit a record 166 on Monday, health officials said. Statewide the number of active virus cases reached a record 16,921, up 58 percent in the past two weeks.

Nearly 270,000 people have died nationwide from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Corrections Officials Report First COVID Death In Charleston, More Than 30 Cases At Mount Olive

This article was updated Saturday, Aug. 29, to include details from the U.S. Marshals Service.

The first person to die of COVID-19 at a state-run jail is a 40-year-old man from Wood County who was being held on federal charges, according to a news release from the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Friday.

He died at a hospital on Friday after testing positive for the coronavirus within the last week, the DCR said. Health officials determined during a preliminary assessment that he died from COVID-19.

The DCR reported that the man had underlying medical conditions. 

The U.S. Marshals Services confirmed late Friday evening that it was one of their prisoners in a state facility that had died. According to federal court records, the man was indicted in January on four counts of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography, followed by a fifth count of possession of child pornography.

Records show he had an upcoming jury trial in September. A federal judge rescheduled his trial a few times after deciding against the original date in March. 

The U.S. Marshals Service reported Friday that it houses nearly 70 percent of its prisoners in facilities run by state and local governments. That includes the South Central Regional Jail, which data from the DCR shows was roughly 80 people over capacity on Friday. 

Officials for the DCR and the state Bureau for Public Health have consulted federal laws for health information privacy, according to BPH spokesperson Allison Adler, and are not providing “identifying details” around the man’s death.

That applies to information from state officials on the man’s medical treatment before dying, according to DCR spokesman Lawrence Messina. 

This first death in a state correctional facility comes more than three months after the DCR reported its first inmate case on May 19 at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County, where more than 100 employees and prisoners later tested positive in the weeks that followed.  

The DCR reported its first employee case of COVID-19 on April 24. 

The Wood County man, who died at some point within the last week, tested negative for the coronavirus earlier in August during a facility-wide round of enhanced testing, according to the DCR.

Roughly 450 prisoners and 80 employees at the Charleston jail have tested negative for the coronavirus in the last month.

On Friday, the DCR reported seven active cases of COVID-19 among Charleston prisoners and 57 recovered cases.  

One employee for the Charleston jail still has COVID-19. The DCR reported on Thursday that six employees have recovered. 

The South Central Regional Jail was nearly 80 people over capacity on Friday.

Nine out of ten state jails were over capacity on Friday, according to data from the DCR. This is despite guidance from state court officials to county prosecutors and judges in March, requesting that they help reduce the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent crimes.

All state prisons were near or under capacity on Friday, according to data from the DCR.

Corrections officials were tracking more than 30 active cases of the coronavirus on Friday at the Mount Olive Correctional Center in Fayette County.

The agency is waiting on more than 850 results after testing all prisoners and staff at the southern West Virginia prison, according to the Friday news release. The DCR reported 13 Mount Olive employees with COVID-19 the same day.  

South Central Regional Jail and Mount Olive are the most recent facilities where the DCR has conducted enhanced testing of all prisoners, since wrapping up a statewide enhanced testing effort in June, following the outbreak at Huttonsville.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.
 

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