MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Hospitalization numbers in all categories in the Mountain State have reach all-time pandemic highs. The number of West Virginians in the hospital as of Monday was 116, 50 people are in ICU beds and 17 of those are on ventilators.
WVU Vice President & Executive Dean for Health Sciences Dr. Clay Marsh,, the state COVID-19 czar, said Monday the demographics of new cases here and across country are taking a notable turn.
“In Florida in April the average age of a COVID positive test was 65, today it’s 35, so young people are really driving a part of this expansion,” Marsh said Monday during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
More than 294,000 COVID-19 tests have been conducted statewide and the cumulative infection rate is at 2.36 percent. According to data from the DHHR, 23 percent of the positive tests are in the 20 to 29-year-old age group.
“As we are testing more people and we’re seeing this really spread everywhere now,” Marsh said. “I think that the number of positive cases underrepresented the real spread of the virus.”
.@claymarsh speaks with @HoppyKercheval about updated COVID-19 numbers in WV. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/qEdsJaUNq4
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 3, 2020
In Morgantown, where bars have been ordered closed since the middle of July, Gov. Justice extended that closure to Aug. 13 at midnight. Active cases have largely been in the under 29 age group but have dropped since a peak of 398 during the second week of July to 136 at the beginning of August.
“And that’s because in Morgantown at one point, 75 percent of the people that were testing positive in the Mon outbreak were between 18 and 29-years-old,” Marsh said.
Doctors have found evidence that the virus does damage to vital organs like the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. But it’s unclear whether some of this damage is directly caused by the virus or by secondary complications of the infection.
“We need to really underscore to our younger people that this is not just the flu,” Marsh said. “We need to pay attention and keep from getting infected because of these potential side effects.”
Marsh said data shows the virus has spread to all areas rural and urban. He said guidelines must be followed.
“We haven’t seen the worst of this yet, this thing is building up,” Marsh said. “We went through the first phase and we think we made it through, now we’re in the next phase, but until we have a solution for this thing will continue to evolve.”