UPDATE 10:30 a.m. Monday Councilman Barry Bledsoe confirmed that he had a relapse and is still a patient at Ruby Memorial Hospital. He hopes to be released later Monday or Tuesday.
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — A north central West Virginia elected official and first responder is going to continue his recovery from COVID-19 at home after an extended hospital stay.
Fairmont City Councilman and Mariom County EMS employee Barry Bledsoe believes he contracted the virus over the July 4 holiday and went to the emergency room after experiencing weakness and shortness of breath.
“I was in the ICU for eight days,” Bledsoe told WAJR Radio News. “It started out with just being generally weak and a really bad cough, the cough got so bad I could hardly breathe and that’s what took me to the emergency room.”
Bledsoe was scheduled to be released from the hospital over the weekend, but his recovery will continue at home.
“According to the doctors my lungs are really scarred, so it’s going to take some healing to get back to normal,” Bledsoe said. “I have to go home on oxygen because of the lung scarring.”
Once doctors confirmed Bledsoe was COVID-19 positive he had to remember who he was within six feet of for more than 15 minutes.
“I got it some time around the Fourth of July weekend. I didn’t go to any Fourth of July celebrations, I really wasn’t anywhere except for around my family who didn’t get it,” Bledsoe said. “But, I was at Walmart.”
Bledsoe’s family will have to leave their home and stay with family until doctors are certain he is virus-free.
After living with the symptoms and treatments for COVID-19 Bledsoe urges people to wear a mask while in public. Bledsoe wants people to understand wearing a mask does not restrict freedoms in any way, but rather can potentially prevent someone else from enduring the pain and disruption of life to he and his family.
Monongalia County numbers improving
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Monongalia have dropped nearly in half during the past week and county health officer Dr. Lee Smith said the numbers appear to be trending downward.
“I am happy to report that three days ago we dropped out of the red zone and we’re now in the orange zone,” Smith said. “We’re three days in a row in the orange zone and the numbers continue to trend down.”
Gov. Jim Justice ordered a 10-day shutdown of the bars in Monongalia County and the numbers began to show improvement. Active cases had dipped to 177 by Saturday evening. Justice’s bar ban extension now goes until Aug. 3.
During the first two weeks of July Monongalia County added 481 new active cases compared 677 from March through June. Smith said the younger age groups are the ones reporting the highest rates of infection.
“The 18 to 29-year-old group make up somewhere between 70 to 75-percent of the new cases so it has shifted from an older population to a younger population,” Smith said.
The improving Monongalia County numbers are also showing up in WVU Sports numbers. The athletic department reported Saturday evening there were only three active cases in all sports.