Four Years of COVID-19 Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Harpers Ferry Reaches New Heights Four Years After Pandemic

Harpers Ferry is a historic West Virginia city and international tourist hub. But four years ago the national park and surrounding town were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourists from around the world visit Harpers Ferry each year to immerse themselves in U.S. history. But four years ago, things were a lot quieter downtown with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading nationwide.

Between 2019 and 2020, visits to the park fell by more than 20 percent. Guided tours and bookshop sales fell, too.

“During the initial part of the pandemic, they said that being outside was actually a bad thing,” said Scot Faulkner, president of the Friends of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. His group serves as a liaison between local residents and the national park.

“They literally blocked access to the trails. They blocked access to these open fields. They even hauled logs to block the parking areas,” he said.

“We experienced a decrease in visitation as travel restrictions and concerns about virus transmission led to reduced recreation activities and some closures,” Kristen Maxfield, an interpretation and education program manager at the park, wrote in an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Others involved in local tourism, too, said that making decisions during the pandemic was a balancing act.

One attraction that closed with the onset of the pandemic was the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) headquarters, located in Harpers Ferry.

Located in Harpers Ferry, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy serves as a headquarters for the Appalachian Trail, not too far from its midpoint.
*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The ATC asked thru-hikers to suspend their journeys in 2020. And, from March 2020 to May 2021, the conservancy closed its office in town, according to Dakota Jackson, ATC associate director of visitor services.

According to Jackson, officials worried that a large group of thru-hikers traveling north from Georgia could spread COVID-19 to communities along the trail.

But, ultimately, she said a lot of decision-making happened on the local level, because land managers help oversee portions of the trail.

“It wasn’t ATC closing the trail,” she said. “It really was like an overall decision in response to the pandemic and land managers over the course of 2020.”

In 2022, once most health restrictions were lifted, Jackson said thru-hiker turnout spiked.

But visits to the Harpers Ferry headquarters remain below pre-pandemic levels. Where the center used to bring in 30,000 visitors per year, it barely passed 19,000 in 2023.

Some saw the pandemic shutdown as a way to keep people safe. Others, like hotel owner Karan Townsend, recall its devastating effect on local business.

Townsend said she’s seen pretty consistent tourist turnout since she founded the hotel in 2007. But the pandemic was devastating, because she had to all but close her hotel in March 2020.

Karan Townsend owns and operates the Town’s Inn, a hotel and cafe located in downtown Harpers Ferry.
*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Things changed a few months later, because West Virginia rescinded some of its public health guidelines earlier than nearby states. Townsend said people began returning to her hotel shortly after this.

“Because we were allowed to open, people that were from nearby areas that were still closed down – actually, not just nearby, from all over the world – came here,” she said.

The upheaval Townsend’s business faced was not alone in Harpers Ferry. Faulkner said many tourist-centric businesses had to close up because of decreased visitors and revenue.

But, like Townsend, Faulkner said things improved gradually as the state reopened.

“As West Virginia began to reopen, being able to see the logs pulled away from the trail paths and being able to have the stores, especially the restaurants, reopen in the town … it began to have an uptick in terms of actual economic activity,” he said.

Today, visitors to the national park have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. They have even surpassed previous heights.

Every year since 2020, the number of visitors to the park has grown. In 2023, more than 400,000 people visited the park.

That marks a growth of more than 100,000 visitors when compared to 2019.

According to Maxfield, the park is now back to its former self, with activities and tour opportunities restored.

“We are delighted to welcome visitors to experience Harpers Ferry National Historical Park for themselves,” she wrote. “There truly is something for people of all ages and interests here.”

Faulkner said that he and residents are also glad to see things back to normal. “We love this park, and [we’re] glad that more and more people are coming.”

W.Va. Schools Still Dealing With Effects Of COVID-19 Pandemic

Four years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic changed daily life for everyone, but the adjustments were perhaps most acute for schools and students. We hear about the adapting learning for the COVID-19 pandemic – and its continued effects on the state’s schools.

Four years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic changed daily life for everyone, but the adjustments were perhaps most acute for schools and students.

Then a deputy superintendent, now State Superintendent Michele Blatt spoke with Chris Schulz about adapting learning for the COVID-19 pandemic, and its continued effects on the state’s schools.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Schulz: Can you explain to me what that March was like four years ago?

Blatt: We definitely had discussions about COVID and what we were hearing from other states and around the world, kind of putting plans in place. But a lot of the discussions, especially with our local health officials and the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) were that there will be some mitigation strategies that we want to put in place, that we will not be closing down schools or anything like that. So we were kind of really caught off guard when the governor did that on March 13, shut down schools and sent everyone home on that Friday.

Everything really happened fast. We had to have all hands on deck, of course, in our counties, and here at the Department of Education, to start thinking about how we were going to not only teach the children from home, but also provide meals and other services that the school system provides for them.

Schulz: I’ve heard from other educators across the state that the turnaround was just like, you know, 48 hours or less, in some cases. How did that come together, and what was the top priority for schools across the state?

Blatt: I think initially there was a big focus on “How are we going to educate the students?” And then within a couple of days it was “We’ve got to make sure that meals are provided to all these students.” We know that in a rural state like West Virginia, the internet’s not something that we could rely on in all of our schools. So we actually started working with superintendents immediately to determine which ones had virtual programs already existing in their counties, which ones had learning management systems that would work to support something like this, and then ramping up the virtual school system that we have here at the Department of Education that serves many counties.

And then thinking about – what about the students that do not have internet service, did not have computers or something available at that point at home? And how would we provide services for those students? There was a lot of our counties initially, that first week or so, we were deploying computers out to the schools, whether it was delivery through the buses, or they were having on-site pickups, so that all the students had their devices at home, a lot of ordering and trying to get in additional computers so that every student had one to work from. But then also a lot of our counties had to rely initially on working through practice of activities and worksheets that we actually ended up distributing in many counties as we distributed the meals on the bus routes.

Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about the challenges of those lower classes, those younger students, because so much of their learning is experiential, it’s play-based. How was that addressed as the pandemic progressed and extended into months?

Blatt: I know that many of our elementary schools worked together not only to provide virtual lessons, and the ones that students were able to join, they actually had live sessions with those students. It was students joining the [Microsoft] Teams meetings so that they were actually able to see the students and the students could interact with their teachers. We also had many counties that put together activity boxes.

I know here in Kanawha County, they put together boxes with Playdough, balls, coloring books, crayons and different things like that, and distributed those into different neighborhoods and things, because we know that’s so important for those young learners to continue to stay engaged in activities as well. It was really, as I said earlier, an all hands on deck and learning as we went, but what are the resources that we could get out into the homes and into the neighborhoods that we serve?

Schulz: As the pandemic progresses, did new issues emerge? What were those?

Blatt: Well, I think that continued to be the priority, providing instruction to our students, whether virtually or through some type of packet, and then making sure that all of our students receive their meals, even through the weekends and things. Then we really started focusing on how we could expand the internet access across the state.

The governor initiated a program that we called Kids Connect. We actually deployed staff from various places, along with the National Guard, to actually put wireless routers and Wi-Fi hotspots in parking lots of all of our schools. They were in the libraries in various communities, so that students who did not have access to the internet would have a way to, if parents were able to take them to the site, they could access their information, or at least download the activities that they needed for the week. So as some of the basic needs started to be met, we started looking at how we can expand access and other things that our students needed to get through the pandemic.

Schulz: We’ve heard a lot since students came back to the classroom about the impact that this has had on mental health. I don’t hear as much about the impact on teachers and staff. Is that something that was being discussed in the department as well?

Blatt: Our teachers and staff were, of course, concerned for themselves and for their own families. But also, they were used to seeing these students every day, taking care of these students, a lot of times actually putting eyes on the students to make sure that they were being taken care of. I think our teachers and staff were really stressed throughout the pandemic. They were trying to provide instruction in a way that they had not in the past, cooks trying to put meal boxes together, weeks at a time and making sure those are distributed. The only person to really see some of these families was bus drivers that were out delivering these things to the students.

I think it really took a toll on our teachers and staff. The pandemic took a toll on everyone and the concerns and things that you have personally and with your own family, but when you’re in a school, you consider those students your family as well. And not being able to be with their students and to help them through a lot of this, I think that was something that we did talk a lot about and address during the pandemic. I think we were aware that there would be some mental health issues and some other things when students return to school.

Schulz: What can you tell me about that process to bring students back to the classroom?

Blatt: Once the vaccine became available, we were instrumental here at the department to help coordinate all of the vaccine clinics across the counties because the schools were the best place to bring the communities together and to provide those vaccines. There was a lot of time and attention focused on that prior to discussions of bringing the students back. Once we started looking at the vaccines becoming more available, and for younger children, then it was time to start working with the governor’s office and everyone to think about when are we going to start putting our students back in school.

We had weekly, at a minimum, weekly calls with all of our superintendents throughout the pandemic. And so we started looking, kind of researching together what is the best way, knowing that our counties would need to make some of these decisions with their local boards in their communities. When we first started back to school, we had students on a variety of schedules. Some had a hybrid schedule, where they were in the building two or three days and still remote, virtual learning for a couple of days. Others did like split A-B schedules, so they had half the kids in the morning, half the kids in the afternoon. There was a variety of ways that our counties chose to do that, and they had that local flexibility, because all of our communities are different and needed to be able to meet the needs of their local community.

Schulz: Four years on, what do you see as the legacy of COVID-19 and the pandemic within West Virginia schools?

Blatt: I think we all say all the time, we never thought that we would experience a pandemic. As we start looking back at the schools and the legacy, we’re still struggling to regain the learning that was lost for our students. You hear a lot of talk about, as you mentioned earlier, the mental health or behavior issues in the school. We have students that did not consistently have school for four years. And when you’re looking at your younger learners, they didn’t learn the social interactions, and the way that school works. So we still have third, fourth, fifth graders that are not only catching up on their learning, but also just how to get through the day and how school works, and how to make friends and all of those different things.

I think we are in a better place in the long run, because I think people really got to see the value of public education, and all of the different things that’s provided through our public schools. Virtual learning works for some students, but the majority of our students need a teacher in front of them, and they need that daily interaction with other children.

Four Years Later, COVID-19 Pandemic Effect On W.Va. Retail

Shortly after the first COVID-19 case hit West Virginia four years ago, our way of day-to-day living drastically changed. Many of those alterations dealt with how we went shopping.

West Virginia Retailers Association President Bridget Lambert spoke with Randy Yohe on COVID-19’s effect on retail – and how our shopping lives have forever been changed.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Yohe: What was the biggest impact that COVID-19 first made on retailers?

Lambert: I think it was just shifting and making sure that we focused on the customer experience and how to keep our customers safe when they were coming out into the stores. When they were doing necessary shopping, it was essential that we had a safe environment for them to come into and shop as best that we could. You saw plexiglass go up at the point of sale. We had different mechanisms that were going on, on the back end of the store, in how we deal with deliveries coming into the store. Boxes were sterilized with a spray. We wanted the employees to be in a safe work environment. And so, back-of-the-store store safety concerns were addressed as well.

Yohe: What about stocking issues?

Lambert: We had a lot of our employees working evenings and nights to stock the shelves so that they weren’t in the middle of the customers coming in when they were shopping. There were some shifts in how retailers stocked stores. It also kept the employees from being exposed to more customers during the day. We did a lot of different things regarding inventory on the store shelves. As you know, we suffered some during the pandemic with being able to fully stock our shelves at all times because of supply chain issues we were dealing with.

Yohe: And what did those COVID-19 related supply chain issues really involve?

Lambert: It really involved several things. It all actually started in the ports in California with some ships not being offloaded in a timely manner. We had trucking issues across the United States. COVID-19 impacted how goods were made and how they were shipped and the availability our stores had of receiving those shipments. It was not as standard as it was prior to COVID-19 hitting the country. We may have 10 trucks expected to come into a large retailer on any given day and four of them would arrive because that’s all of the goods that we’re available. So retailers were definitely struggling to make sure they were able to keep the shelves stocked.

Yohe: Have supply chain issues been resolved?

Lambert: By and large, yes. We are seeing that the store shelves are stocked more. We have a backlog of merchandise that was on backorder from that timeframe that has come in. Sometimes, we’ll be flooded with outdoor furniture shipments that had been on backorder, those types of things that we’re dealing with now on the front end that goes to the actual customer, and we are still working to this day. Retailers are operating a little bit of a thinner margin of stock. They are very resilient and respond to the trends that are going on in the supply chain. But they are having, I would say, razor thin margins of stock right now.

Yohe: Talk about how COVID-19 spurred the development of phone and email ordering, curbside pickup and home delivery.

Lambert: The retail industry had been offering a diversified approach to shopping for customers, such as online. We had continued growth of customer online shopping year after year. The holiday season showed those numbers every year. And many retailers were still looking for a way to offer goods to their customers and through the omni channel approach, and they were in the process of expanding that approach. But the COVID-19 pandemic really blended traditional brick and mortar store shopping with the convenience of online shopping.

It also really forced the retail industry to pivot and focus more on resources such as the buy online-pick up in store and the buy online-shipped to the store. Our brick and mortar retailers stepped up and started to offer curbside pickup. They developed contactless shopping so you can go online and order. It’s put into a locker and you are given a code to access your order. You can walk right out without having to go into the backend of the store, or interact with any employees in the store. So these emerging trends continue now to be normal for retail customers.

Yohe: How have West Virginia retailers balanced COVID-19 enhanced inflation when you have customers versus overhead?

Lambert: That is one thing that the retail industry continues to struggle with. As you might imagine, it’s very expensive to pivot a whole industry or when you are dealing with something like shifting from mainly brick and mortar customers to a lot of online shopping. The industries that really have benefited from this shift, you’re seeing warehousing, the delivery companies, they really have picked up their end of that situation and expanded.

So maybe in-store retail employment has gone down slightly. We see the shift in the jobs go to a different type of industry, where they are picking up the packages, they’re delivering them to the front door. So the retail industry in the landscape looks a little different now.

Health Care Leaders Look Back On Four Years Of COVID-19

On March 17, 2020, West Virginia became the last state in the U.S. to test positive for COVID-19.

Time passes differently from each person’s perspective. The COVID-19 pandemic may seem like decades ago to some, and just like yesterday to others. In actuality, it has been four years since the world as we knew it came to a grinding halt.

The current Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health, Dr. Sherri Young, was working as the health officer and executive director for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department when the virus arrived in the state.

“We were the 50th state to have, or announce, our first case,” Young said. “And so it seems like from those waiting points, things accelerated very quickly to having more and more cases, and kind of evolving from all the responses that we had to do.”

Dr. Clay Marsh was eventually appointed by Gov. Jim Justice as West Virginia’s COVID-19 czar, the person who coordinated the federal, state and local agencies, health officials, researchers and other agencies aiding in the state’s response to the virus.

However, at the beginning of the pandemic, Marsh was making decisions for West Virginia University (WVU), as its executive dean for health sciences. He said he watched news reports of how the virus was spreading around the world and made decisions based on the most up-to-date information.

“Seeing that coming toward us in the U.S., we decided, you know, right before spring break, that instead of bringing the students back after spring break, we would actually close the university to classes, of course, taking care of the students that were at the university, international students, people, who didn’t have other places to go,” Marsh said. “But otherwise, then we took a big step and went online after that.”

Marsh said West Virginia’s rural demographics protected it from the virus for so long, with no large urban areas for COVID-19 to spread.

“We had the benefit of waiting until COVID came through the rest of the world and part of the rest of the country, and the urban centers to be able to respond,” Marsh said. “And so I think that was a tremendous advantage for us.”

Young said the first year of the pandemic was spent making hard decisions to limit the spread of COVID-19 and casualties from it.

“We knew that there was very limited testing, we were using repurposed PCR testing that we changed the calibration for what we’d use for a flu test or other types of coronaviruses that we had to develop testing,” Young said. “So I remember sitting at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department with 10 swabs, knowing that there were more people exposed in one patient than I could possibly test at that time.”

Young said one of the defining steps in mitigating the risk was the development of testing and distribution.

“One of the things that Gov. Justice did that was so great for us at the local health level, was making that testing available to everyone, once we had that capability,” Young said.

Marsh said a big milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic was understanding how it was communicated.

“I think that going from not understanding how COVID was transmitted, to understanding that COVID was really transmitted by respiratory exchange, and breathing, exchange, cough and exchange, sneezing exchange, and it was airborne, is really, really a huge advantage,” Marsh said.

Of course, both Young and Marsh agree, the invention of the COVID-19 vaccine was a turning point in fighting the virus.

“The next big evolution within the COVID pandemic, when we finally got that vaccine, that was life-altering, life-changing, I will forever remember the minute that I got to get the first dose from the health department,” Young said.

Marsh said not only was the invention of the vaccine a turning point, but a revolutionary moment in medicine.

“Coming up with the new vaccines, particularly the messenger RNA vaccines, were really a turning point in the pandemic and allowed us to protect the most vulnerable first, the aged, the older you are, the more likely COVID will have severe consequences, people that are immunocompromised, and then of course, eventually, you know, people who are first responders who are medical caregivers, and then everyone,” Marsh said.

Young agreed, remembering how exciting it was for the elderly to be allowed to visit with their loved ones again, without fear or worry.

“For some of the older adults, especially those 65 and older, and one of the most gratifying things getting to stand in those clinics, or even doing house calls, which we had done from the Kanawha-Charleston perspective, with the gratitude and being able to be open to being back around folks,” Young said. “So at the initiation of the vaccine, the uptake was good, and the response was good.”

Marsh said the world is not done with COVID-19, as it continues to mutate and with some patients still suffering from Long COVID.

“We still are not done with COVID, particularly related to the impact of Long COVID, the extended problems that people can suffer including brain fog and a variety of other problems,” Marsh said. “And we’re learning more and more about Long COVID. But that’s certainly still something that is impacting people in the U.S. and across the globe every day.”

Young encouraged people to speak with their physicians about what vaccination is appropriate.

“Well, fortunately, people, I think, were very well attuned at the beginning, but we don’t talk about COVID a lot,” Young said. “I think where we need to have that conversation is just realizing that it is something that we have to live with. It’s now endemic in our society, we will forever be dealing with it just like we deal with the flu, just like we deal with RSV and other diseases.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans 65 and older should receive an additional dose of the latest COVID-19 vaccine this spring.

According to West Virginia’s Pan Respiratory Dashboard, just 36 percent of West Virginians over the age of 61 are up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccines. The dashboard shows that of the more than 100 West Virginians who died from COVID-19 in the past year, the average age was 73.

“As the data consistently shows, those who are older and immunocompromised are the most vulnerable to the severe effects of COVID-19,” said Young in a press release. “It is for this reason we encourage those individuals to strongly consider getting an additional dose.”

Under current recommendations, those 65 and older can receive an additional dose of the vaccine at least four months after the previous shot. The updated vaccine targets both the original strain of the virus and newer variants, offering broader protection.

To find updated COVID-19 information and the nearest vaccination location, visit COVID-19 Vaccine.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.