Jefferson County, described by Gov. Jim Justice as part of a coronavirus hotspot, plans an emergency health department meeting today.
The meeting focuses on the covid-19 pandemic, as well as how to respond to a new executive order giving health departments in cluster areas greater latitude in enforcing social distancing guidelines.
The governor’s initial executive order focused on the Eastern Panhandle counties of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan.
That’s because recent test results from those counties showed increased growth of positive results, said the state’s coronavirus czar, Clay Marsh.
“Clearly their rate of change has gone up 30 percent a day over the last few days,” Marsh said Saturday on MetroNews “Talkline.”So we know that something’s brewing there.
“The point is that really doubling down in these areas that are starting to be hotspots or starting to become clusters or outbreaks — it’s really the first place we’ve seen so far in a coordinated way that we saw a group of people and places in an area that were positive.”
He said increased standards could help slow the spread of the virus even more.
“Parts of the state are going to flare up, and if we can get to them early to really engage the community, to really bear down for a bit of time then we believe we can quiet these places down and avert something that could really start to cause problems,” Marsh said.
On Saturday night the the governor also added Kanawha, Harrison and Monongalia counties to the order.
Justice said those counties account for the majority of identified coronavirus cases in West Virginia.
“Today, we had reports of crowds at stores with the nice spring weather, but to stop the spread of COVID-19 we MUST stay at home as much as possible and we MUST remember to socially distance when we go out for necessities,” Justice stated Saturday night.
“The stay-at-home order and the guidelines by our medical experts need to be taken very seriously at this time.”
The most recent figures from the state Department of Health and Human Resources show 282 confirmed cases out of 7,686 tests.
Of the states now under greater emergency guidelines, the figures show:
Berkeley with 49 cases
Harrison with 19
Jefferson with 17
Kanawha, 48
Monongalia, 40
Morgan has reported only 1 positive case, although its proximity along with Berkeley and Jefferson counties to the Washington, D.C., region caused it to be included.
There are often lags between the numbers reported by DHHR compared to numbers reported directly by county health departments.
Justice’s executive order is meant to limit groups to a maximum of five people and directs all businesses to require employees to work from home “to the maximum extent possible.”
It authorizes the county health departments to limit occupancy of any businesses that remain open to the public and designates support from the State Police and the West Virginia National Guard.
In Kanawha County, Commissioner Kent Carper stated that the enhanced social distancing policies under the executive order will help slow the spread of the virus.
“Stay at home orders have been issued,, but we continue to see people congregating,” Carper stated Saturday night.
“The executive order will help the Health Department regulate the appropriate procedures to stop the spread of the virus and provide additional resources, including the National Guard to help with logistics.”