Dr. Clay Marsh Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Booster Approval, Distribution Expected Early Next Month

State leaders are eyeing early September for the approval of the latest COVID vaccine boosters.

During Thursday’s pandemic press briefing, state coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh gave a potential timeline for the approval and distribution of a bivalent COVID vaccine booster, designed to target the virus’ omicron subvariants.

Bivalent refers to the vaccine’s ability to target two strains of COVID-19: the original variant, as well as the omicron strain.

“The omicron variant of COVID-19 is the critical form of COVID-19 that is causing cases in West Virginia as well as in the country,” Marsh said.

He said the drug’s approval is expected after the Food and Drug Administration meets in early September, with approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following shortly after.

“Therefore, fairly soon after Labor Day, we should start to see the availability of the new omicron-specific booster shots that will be available,” Marsh said. “At least at this point, it looks like for the first wave the indications will be West Virginians and Americans over 65 years old.”

However, in response to a question later in the press conference, Marsh said that distribution could expand to other age groups depending on federal guidance.

“We understand the demographic, important age grouping and the impact of age, pre-existing health problems, immunosuppressed status has in having a higher risk of getting severely ill, hospitalized or dying with COVID-19,” Marsh said. “Of course we will try to make sure we adhere to FDA and CDC guidelines, but we also will internally prioritize the groups that we want to make sure have immediate access to the vaccine.”

During Tuesday’s press briefing, Ret. Maj. Gen. Jim Hoyer said West Virginia placed its first order for the bivalent vaccine on Monday, and expected to place another order next week.

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

COVID-19 Update: Relaxed CDC Guidelines, Booster Benefits, Long COVID-19 Studies

West Virginia health experts say as the national number of COVID-19 cases drops, relaxed CDC guidelines still call for vigilance.

During Gov. Jim Justice’s Monday coronavirus briefing, West Virginia coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh anticipated the state’s COVID-19 case numbers will follow a national trend and also soon decline.

“As we look at the Walgreens COVID positivity index, we find that their index from Walgreens stores around the country last week was 37 percent,” Marsh said. “West Virginia was still 42 percent, so we still are hanging up there. But we can anticipate over the next week, or a bit more, to see our numbers start to decline. That doesn’t mean that it’s still not important for people to protect themselves. “

Marsh said new CDC guidelines note that if a person has been exposed to somebody with COVID-19, and neither have any symptoms, the one exposed should wear a mask for 10 days – but doesn’t have to isolate – even without up-to-date vaccinations.

He also mentioned a new CDC guideline for children.

“The CDC also suggests that in schools, children who may be exposed to somebody who has COVID-19 but do not have symptoms, do not have to test to stay in school,” Marsh said.

Marsh said he’s now seen five separate studies indicating that for West Virginia’s over 50 years old, getting a second booster greatly reduces the chance of hospitalization and death.

He indicated that a new study from the Netherlands came out and suggested that one in eight people who have had COVID-19, even mild COVID-19, reported symptoms of long COVID.

“They found that the most common symptoms in those people were chest pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue,” Marsh said. “In this study they also felt that long COVID was less common in children than in adults.”

COVID-19 Hospitalizations Climb Closer To State’s Limit

COVID-19 cases in the state have remained around 3,000 active cases for weeks, but hospitalizations continue to climb.

West Virginia reached 399 COVID-19 hospitalizations Tuesday, bringing the state that much closer to the predetermined statewide capacity of 500 coronavirus hospitalizations.

“We have moved our number back to 500 to do planning exercises, and that, at this point, is scheduled for in the near future,” State Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh said.

Marsh pointed out that the hospitals’ issue is not just with COVID cases, but with broader stressors on the medical system, like staffing shortages.

“Hospitals are currently not having capacity limitations just because of COVID,” Marsh said. “Many hospitals have big backlogs of surgeries and medical care that people put off during the COVID pandemic surges that we had seen previously. So the hospitals are very full, both with some more patients with COVID, but also with people without. So we continue to work with them closely.”

Gov. Jim Justice and Marsh continue to urge that the best protection against serious infection and long COVID is vaccination.

BA.5 Surge Still Weeks Away From Peak

Coronavirus cases continue their climb in West Virginia, but the peak is yet to come.

Gov. Jim Justice began Friday’s COVID-19 briefing by highlighting what he called “a big jump” in the number of active cases in the state.

“The biggest thing you need to dial into is we’ve jumped to 3358 active cases,” Justice said. “And we have 325 folks that are hospitalized with COVID in West Virginia now. I couldn’t tell you enough about getting your booster shot.”

That number, 3,358, is the highest active COVID-19 case numbers have been in West Virginia for five months, since late February.

Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh cautioned that, driven by the BA.5 variant, the peak of this surge is likely still weeks away.

“We know that the BA.5 variant has not yet risen to its full potential in the U.S., and we know that West Virginia is a few weeks, always, behind the rest of the U.S.,” Marsh said. “We can anticipate that BA.5 will come and have its full strength felt in West Virginia in the next several weeks.”

Marsh said the forms of COVID-19 circulating now are the most infectious yet, and called this time before the BA.5 peak the perfect time to get up to date on vaccines.

“This is really the right time to make sure that you go to the vaccine calculator, and if you’re due for another shot, if you’re due for a booster or a second booster or even if you’re due to get your primary series, this is really the best time to do it,” Marsh said. “And we hope people will do that because we don’t want the governor to read more names at the beginning of the next press conference.”

Justice and Marsh pointed to Pres. Biden’s seemingly mild case of COVID-19 as further evidence of the importance of vaccination to prevent severe illness.

Ret. Maj. Gen. James Hoyer said the state will order doses of Novavax on Monday. Approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday, Novavax uses more traditional protein-subunit vaccine technology. There is hope that vaccine hesitant populations will be more likely to use it over existing mRNA and viral vector vaccines.

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

Virus Cases, Hospitalizations Surge In West Virginia

Active coronavirus cases skyrocketed 72 percent in West Virginia and hospitalizations surged over the past week as the omicron variant started to take a firm hold in the state.

There were 11,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide last week, shattering the one-week record of 9,587 set in mid-September, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources’ dashboard. The state surpassed 2,000 positive cases for the first time, doing so on three consecutive days, including a record 2,564 on Friday.

Active cases reached 15,015 on Sunday and have more than doubled since Dec. 24. It’s the highest total since September, when cases surged to a record of nearly 30,000.

The number of people hospitalized for the virus in West Virginia hit 721 on Monday, the highest since mid-October. The figure is up 29 percent since Christmas.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus expert, said last week that the spread of the omicron variant lagged behind the rest of the nation with the variant detected in about 15 percent of West Virginia cases.

Gov. Jim Justice had warned that the latest surge could overrun hospitals. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 81 percent of intensive-care unit beds statewide are in use, including 31 percent for COVID-19 patients.

The West Virginia Hospital Association has said that the high number of COVID-19 patients combined with hospital visits for trauma, flu and other patients “has strained the health care system, and now after nearly two years, the system is nearing a breaking point as health care workers are mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted.”

Justice has implored state residents to get vaccinated for the virus, including booster shots. About half of the state’s population is fully vaccinated and 61% have received at least one dose, according to state health officials.

W.Va. Elementary, Middle Schools To Reopen For In-person Learning Jan. 19

Citing lessons learned from the fall semester, Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday at his regular news conference that West Virginia elementary and middle schools will open to in-person learning on Jan. 19.

High schools will continue to be subject to the color coded map with counties in red required to use virtual learning.

Schools will continue virtually from the start of school on Jan. 4 until Jan. 19, 2021, with that time frame being used to prepare classrooms for the return of students to in-person learning. Students who choose to remain on virtual learning after Jan. 19 can still use that option.

The governor added that his new directive for schools was not an order, and that local school systems will retain local control.

“I don’t think I have the authority, and I don’t want the authority, to make that an order,” he said.

Justice indicated that there are several reasons for the return to school despite the increasing numbers of Covid infections across the state. He said one-third of students are failing at least one of their core classes using the virtual learning method.

“We all know that we are failing at virtual learning,” he said. “It does not work without consistent live engagement.”

He also indicated that child protective services referrals are down 50 to 55 percent, meaning that students in troubled environments are not being protected.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar, indicated that in-class transmission is rare. Children under 15 years old are less likely than high-schoolers to contract the virus, which explains the reason for his announcement being limited to the younger grades.

“Children under 15 years old are 50 percent less likely to catch and 50 percent less likely to spread COVID-19 than children over 15,” he said.

To protect faculty, staff and service workers in the schools, Justice announced that all school personnel over 50 years old will be offered access to the vaccine over the next two to three weeks. Once everyone in that initial round who wants it is vaccinated, the state will then vaccinate those below 50.

Additionally, the start of winter sports will be delayed until March 1, 2021.

In related news, Justice also announced that as of this morning, the effort to vaccinate the residents and staff at all 214 long-term care facilities in the state is now complete.

Recognizing that the largest percentage of those who die from the coronavirus is among the elderly, Justice said that the general population of West Virginia, over 80 years old, will be the next priority in receiving vaccinations..This will take place at national guard armories and other locations around the state beginning immediately. .

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, indicated that they will be reaching out through local health departments and clinics to contact 80 year olds. Essential service workers, including grocery store employees, will also be contacted by their employers and business associations.

“This is bold and aggressive, but we have people that are dying. We know we are going to save lives,” Justice said.

This effort will be on a first-come, first-served basis. He said to watch the DHHR website for more information.