With covid-19 cases surging in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice has advice for state residents from A to D.
“A, we’re in another surge,” the governor said today.
“B, our hospitals are tasked to the very limit right now. C, the omicron virus is going to spread more and more and faster and faster. D, is your odds are phenomenally in favor — if by chance you get this, which there is a high probability you could — of not being hospitalized or, God forbid, death, if you’re vaccinated.”
Justice’s remarks today came as the state’s active cases and hospitalizations continue at alarming levels.
West Virginia identified 21,717 current active cases today. The state is registering 18.93 percent daily positivity, meaning almost one of every five people tested is returning a covid-positive result.
The state’s county alert map shows that all but five counties are at the highest levels signified by the color red. Hancock, Brooke, Tucker, Pocahontas and Jackson are at lower levels than the rest.
Hospitalizations from covid-19 surged to 978 on Sunday, the highest level the state has hit since reaching 1,012 at the height of the delta surge in September.
“We’re in the midst of another surge that is caused by the omicron variant,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s leading pandemic adviser, who described the latest sequencing that shows 94 percent of West Virginia cases are now omicron.
“It is so infectious that it can even infect people who have been vaccinated but are over four to six months after their primary vaccination series or people who are vaccinated and boosted who are greater than three months after their booster dose.”
But Marsh said those vaccines still provide greater protection against very serious cases resulting in hospitalization or death.
Cases have particularly hit West Virginia’s correctional facilities, where the state identified 559 active cases as of Friday. There are another 190 cases among corrections officers, according to state figures.
Justice announced the death of a correction system worker, 51-year-old Paula Jo Tomblin, who worked at the Lakin Correctional Center. Justice said that is the third death among corrections workers since the start of the pandemic.
“I don’t like to use words like ‘raging,'” Justice said, “but we’ve got an awful lot of inmates and staff in corrections with covid.”