West Virginia is entering a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic—community cluster outbreaks. These clusters occur when the rate of positive cases begins to speed up.
The first reports of these community clusters came late last week in the eastern panhandle, which prompted Governor Jim Justice to issue an executive order Friday night tightening down on group gatherings, travel and maximum occupancy at essential businesses in Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan counties.
(Read more of the latest on the pandemic in West Virginia here and here.)
The next report of increased community spread came Saturday and late Saturday night when Justice expanded that executive order to Kanawha, Monongalia and Harrison Counties.
“I had been monitoring this situation all day (Saturday),” Justice said, and decided to take action tonight after my medical experts advised me that these counties are the next areas where community clusters may soon develop.”
These existing and potential community cluster spreads occur because the virus is highly contagious and the threat is exacerbated when people continue to carry on with life as before, ignoring the repeated warnings by government and health officials.
“We had reports of crowds at stores with the nice spring weather,” Justice said. “But to stop the spread of COVID-19 we MUST stay at home as much as possible and we MUST remember to socially distance ourselves when we go out for necessities.
West Virginia COVID-19 Czar Dr. Clay Marsh says the emergence of virus “hot spots” is not surprising. The modeling suggests the peak here is still a month away, which means a steady rise in infections and deaths.
However, Marsh still believes strongly that West Virginia can manage the spread. “Everything we do on the good side will have dramatic ramifications when the surge comes,” he told me yesterday. “You are not only responsible for your own health, but also your community’s health and the health of healthcare workers.”
That was reinforced by Dr. Kylie Parrish during an interview Saturday on a special edition of MetroNews Talkline. She works on the COVID-19 floor at WVU Medicine Ruby Memorial Hospital. I asked what her message is to West Virginians and her answer was simple—stay home.
We have heard over and over that most West Virginians have made good decisions about keeping their distance from each other. That behavior has slowed the spread and increased the possibility that our state can get through this without an unmanageable surge.
However, one of our biggest obstacles now is complacency. Thinking by too many West Virginians that the warnings are overblown or somehow not intended for them raises the probability that the pandemic will eventually get the upper hand here, further damaging the economy and putting an even greater strain on our health delivery system and those workers.