CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There could be another two weeks of growth in Omicron variant cases in West Virginia.
State Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh said during Wednesday’s coronavirus media briefing hosted by Gov. Jim Justice that Omicron will likely plateau in the next 5 to 14 days but that doesn’t mean the growth of cases will stop.
“The plateau like we saw with Delta (variant) will be a bit sharper we think because Omicron is generally more up and down but that represents the spread to more rural parts of our state, so we have multiple curves underneath that plateau we think,” Marsh said.
The state reported just under 16,000 active cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. The West Virginia Hospital Association said hospitalizations statewide numbered 915 patients including 13 pediatric patients. There were 125 new admissions in the last day.
Marsh said the plateau of Omicron cases is just the beginning.
“When the plateau starts we know it is still 5 to 14 days after that we can see an increase in hospitalizations and a week to two to three weeks after that we continue to see an increase in deaths,” Marsh said.
He said how many deaths depends on continued vaccinations, boosters and good practices in public places.
“We do anticipate as we see cases going up and see hospitalizations going up so will the severity of some of these people’s hospital stay and we’ll see more deaths follow,” Marsh said.
The state’s COVID dashboard listed 415 Omicron cases Wednesday.
Map in use
The state Department of Health and Human Resources is once again posting the COVID-19 daily alert map.
The agency took it down for a few days after the CDC changed the requirements when it comes to what is an active case of COVID-19.
State DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said the agency has made corresponding changes.
“All counties are now on a 7-day average. That’s probably the biggest change you will see on the map,” Crouch said. “We’ve adjusted our thresholds to align with the CDC.”
There were 34 counties in the ‘red’ high-spread category on Wednesday’s map.