CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch says he had his “eyes opened” when he visited health department officials in Logan and Mingo counties Thursday who are dealing with the community spread of COVID-19.
Crouch said the work being done in the area of contact tracing is very impressive and it’s pointing toward a reoccurring theme.
“These cases are coming from West Virginians who are traveling out of West Virginia and who are going to Myrtle Beach and other areas, but primarily Myrtle Beach and bringing the disease back with them,” Crouch said Friday at Gov. Jim Justice’s media briefing on the coronavirus.
Crouch says Logan County Health Department officials have whiteboards set up around a room tracing each case.
“We are seeing a huge outbreak in southern West Virginia that is of our own doing,” Crouch said.
Crouch said he assumed tourists to areas like the Hatfield McCoy Trail were bringing the spread into West Virginia but he said not one case has been linked to tourism.
“Tourism is not the problem. They are not bringing it to us. This is West Virginians who are bringing it back,” Crouch said.
Gov. Justice has blamed the spread previously on trips to Myrtle Beach and he repeated that Friday.
“Think about it, it’s Myrtle Beach. That’s where a lot of the problem has come from,” Justice said.
Logan County had 170 active cases Friday, according to the DHHR COVID-19 dashboard. Mingo County 81, McDowell County 44 and Mercer County 135. Many of the Mercer County cases are linked to an outbreak at the Princeton Health Care Center nursing home.
State Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh said while the state’s virus reproductive rate is now sixth lowest in the nation at .91, the rate is higher in Logan, McDowell, Mercer and Mingo counties.
“When people do visit places that have high amounts of virus that they very well might decide themselves to quarantine themselves when they get back and get tested to make sure they are not one of the people that have been infected and they can infect other people,” Marsh said.
Crouch said he also learned from his Thursday visit that the virus has spread at a high rate within the same family units.
“Clearly the family outbreaks in Logan County are high. There are a lot of families with multiple members of the family who are positive,” Crouch said.
Court closings continue
Meanwhile, Boone County Circuit Judge Will Thompson revised an order Friday that will keep the Boone County court system closed for the foreseeable future. A positive case in the prosecutor’s office caused Thompson to order a one week closure last Friday. The Boone County Commission has since entered an order closing the entire courthouse.
The Lincoln and Logan court systems are also closed temporarily because of the outbreak. Only emergency hearings are being held.