West Virginia’s active cases of covid-19 continue to decline, but the most serious cases are continuing to strain medical facilities and families.
“We’re going through almost the eye of the storm right now,” Gov. Jim Justice said at a pandemic briefing today. “We know that at any level of peak, we lose a lot of people.”
West Virginia officials today reported 64 deaths since the last update. The state is now at 3,642 deaths attributed to covid-19 since the pandemic began.
The Associated Press reported that 558 West Virginians have died of covid-19 this month, far more than the previous four months combined.
“It’s really sad. It’s really sad,” Justice said after reading a list of the deaths reported the past few days.
The state most recently reported 974 covid-19 patients requiring hospitalization, about in line with other recent daily reports. Of those, 81.4 percent are unvaccinated.
West Virginia reported 298 covid-19 patients needing the intensive care unit, up somewhat. Of those, 86.9 percent are unvaccinated.
And the state reported 187 people needing the help of ventilators to breathe, about in line with recent numbers. Of those, 90 percent are unvaccinated.
“We have not seen that downward trend yet. It’s still a challenging time with a lot of hospitalizations and, specifically the ICU hospitalizations,” said Albert Wright, president and chief executive of WVU Medicine.
Speaking today on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” Wright said intensive care unit capacity sometimes eases — but not always with an outcome anyone would wish.
“We’ve always got a couple of ICU beds here and there. You’ve got people moving from ICU maybe getting better. A lot of times when you report those covid deaths each day or the state does, those are folks who’ve passed away who free up an ICU bed. That’s a difficult way to think about things,” he said.
“We’re still seeing very sick folks, mostly unvaccinated. And people are still passing away.”
Wright urged empathy for the hospital workers and families who are going through difficult times.
“I think a lot of families are struggling with loved ones who are sick,” he said. And he added, “If you know or have a loved one who works in a hospital or health care facility, thank ‘em for what they’re doing.”
There are 13,344 current active COVID-19 cases. What is the current situation with hospitals, and how are those places holding up? Albert Wright, President & CEO of @WVUMedicine explains the situation with @DaveWilsonMN. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/5cC8S99vs0
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 29, 2021
West Virginia reported 13,344 active cases of covid-19 today.
That is down from 13,542 the prior day. And it’s down from 15,280 a week ago.
State officials continued to urge residents to get vaccinated, but that’s been an uphill effort.
The latest figures showed that 56.5 percent of vaccine-eligible residents are considered fully-vaccinated.
“The way to curb this and stop this is to get vaccinated,” Justice said today.