MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — State Coronavirus Czar Doctor Clay Marsh predicts the second round of battling COVID-19 in West Virginia will be much more difficult than the first round because many are tired and fatigued and want to start doing things they are used to doing.
“They’ve said, ‘Well, we’ve stayed at home. We’ve down so well. The weather is nice,'” Marsh said Friday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Marsh said the important issue in the second phase is trying to encourage residents to wear masks.
“That’s the piece that’s our secret weapon that we haven’t really deployed yet,” Marsh said.
He said masks are like having a vaccine because research shows if 60 percent of residents wear them the R-naught infection spread number can stay around 1 or lower. Marsh said if 80 percent of residents wear masks the rate of spread will be even lower.
“Masks show you care about others,” Marsh said. “It’s a critical step in the next phase.”
.@claymarsh talks to @HoppyKercheval about most recent updates on COVID-19 in WV. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/HHv1u9xVjL
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) May 29, 2020
Marsh said COVID-19 will spread into rural America in the second phase this summer. He said West Virginia must move forward with that knowledge.
“We have to be aware of that and to me, with our very vulnerable population, it is really important that we really do take a leadership as a people,” Marsh said.
As of Friday morning. the state was reporting 1,951 total confirmed cases since early March with 74 deaths. There have been 93,377 total tests. The percentage of positive tests is just above 2 percent with the daily test rate below 1 percent.
Cases per county include:
(Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case): Barbour (9/0), Berkeley (290/11), Boone (10/0), Braxton (2/0), Brooke (4/0), Cabell (59/2), Calhoun (2/0), Clay (2/0), Fayette (46/0), Gilmer (10/0), Grant (10/1), Greenbrier (9/0), Hampshire (29/0), Hancock (15/2), Hardy (38/0), Harrison (40/1), Jackson (135/0), Jefferson (168/4), Kanawha (218/2), Lewis (7/0), Lincoln (5/0), Logan (17/0), Marion (50/0), Marshall (28/0), Mason (15/0), McDowell (6/0), Mercer (13/0), Mineral (43/2), Mingo (6/1), Monongalia (121/11), Monroe (6/1), Morgan (17/1), Nicholas (8/0), Ohio (41/0), Pendleton (9/2), Pleasants (3/1), Pocahontas (18/1), Preston (17/5), Putnam (35/0), Raleigh (15/1), Randolph (126/0), Ritchie (1/0), Roane (9/0), Summers (1/0), Taylor (8/0), Tucker (4/0), Tyler (3/0), Upshur (6/1), Wayne (98/0), Webster (0/0), Wetzel (8/0), Wirt (4/0), Wood (51/3), Wyoming (3/0).
.@WV_DHHR reports as of 10:00 a.m., on May 29, 2020, there have been 93,377 total confirmatory laboratory results received for #COVID19, with 1,951 total cases and 74 deaths. #SaferAtHomeWVhttps://t.co/EJ6YKZQ17Q pic.twitter.com/yYn7hiE3sy
— WV DHHR (@WV_DHHR) May 29, 2020