WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va. — One of the last counties in West Virginia to be Covid free is no more. A positive case was identified in an individual in Webster County this week, the first positive case there since the pandemic started.
“We didn’t figure we would make it this long without a case. It was just a matter of time,” said Webster County Health Department Administrator Crystal Moran.
Moran would not release any demographic information on the individual like age or sex. She did however say they are working to determine where the person had been and who they had been in contact with.
“We are in the tracing process and we are contacting their contacts and working on that,” she said. “We anticipate we probably will see more positive cases, but there’s a lot we don’t know at this point.”
Now that Webster County has a positive case, only Doddridge County has no confirmation of Covid 19 in West Virginia. For a time, Webster County was thought to be the only county without a positive when an inmate at the North Central Regional Jail tested positive. However, it turned out the inmate’s test was a false positive.
The lack of any cases, Moran said, has caused some people to be lulled into a false sense of security.
“Community members have been very good to self isolate and do well throughout the whole pandemic. However, I think some people do let their guard down a little bit,” she said.
Moran continued to encourage Webster County residents, like all others, to wear a mask in public, maintain good social distancing, and self isolate as much as possible.