From Staff Reports
CHARLESTON Residents of Jackson and Tyler counties are among the most recent COVID-19 fatalities announced by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
The state recorded nine additional deaths attributed to the coronavirus from Monday to Tuesday morning, bringing the total to 2,695 since the start of the pandemic. The deaths announced Tuesday included an 87-year-old woman from Tyler County and a 75-year-old woman from Jackson County.
Active cases in local counties (previous day) are: Calhoun, 13 (12); Doddridge, 20 (25); Gilmer, 54 (50); Jackson, 95 (99); Pleasants, 25 (28); Ritchie, 19 (23); Roane, 27 (25); Tyler, 26 (28); Wetzel, 128 (126); Wirt, 32 (26); Wood, 109 (110).
Wirt County remained red, the highest level on the state map measuring the severity of COVID-19 spread, along with Berkeley and Wayne counties. Wetzel and Gilmer counties were orange, the second-highest category.
ebevins@newsandsentinel.com
ELIZABETH Wirt County is one of three counties classified as red on West Virginia’s latest COVID-19 map.
Red is the most severe category of virus transmission, based on a rolling average of positive test percentages and infection rates over a seven- or 14-day period, depending on a county’s population. Also in that category Monday were Berkeley and Raleigh counties.
Data released Monday by the state Department of Health and Human Resources showed Wirt County with 26 active cases, compared to eight a week ago.
“There’s been a couple of family groups that have had COVID,” said Carrie Brainard, threat preparedness coordinator for the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, which covers Wirt, Wood, Calhoun, Pleasants, Ritchie and Roane counties.