As the month of May finally arrived Friday, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced 26 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths attributed to the virus.
The new deaths reported Friday were a 58-year old male and an 86-year old female, both from Jackson County, as well as a 97-year old male from Putnam County.
“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports as of 5 p.m. on May 1, 2020, there have been 47,062 laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 1,151 positive, 45,911 negative and 47 deaths,” according to a press release.
In his daily briefing Friday, Gov. Jim Justice cautiously looked forward to the first wave of reopenings and sought to reassure those worried the state is moving forward too quickly.
“We do feel like it is safe to move forward,” the governor said. “But I can tell you this. If in fact we have a problem, we’ll back up … And if need be, I’ll close it back down. If this goes the wrong way, I’m going to react. And I’m going to react before we end up with a bad situation.”
The cumulative positive rate – which needs to remain below 3 percent per the governor’s reopening plan – dropped slightly to 2.45 percent. The daily rate of positive cases reported Friday was 1.1 percent.
About 46 percent of the West Virginia cases remain active, according DHHR data. Of the cases that are no longer active, 572 people have recovered and 47 have died, a mortality rate of about 7.6 percent.
New cases were reported Friday in Berkeley, Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Hardy, Kanawha, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Morgan, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Wayne and Wood counties.
CONFIRMED CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (5), Berkeley (153), Boone (6), Braxton (2), Brooke (3), Cabell (43), Fayette (14), Gilmer (2), Grant (1), Greenbrier (3), Hampshire (7), Hancock (10), Hardy (6), Harrison (30), Jackson (130), Jefferson (79), Kanawha (161), Lewis (4), Lincoln (2), Logan (13), Marion (46), Marshall (13), Mason (12), McDowell (6), Mercer (10), Mineral (18), Mingo (2), Monongalia (101), Monroe (5), Morgan (12), Nicholas (6), Ohio (29), Pendleton (3), Pleasants (2), Pocahontas (2), Preston (13), Putnam (27), Raleigh (9), Randolph (4), Roane (6), Summers (1), Taylor (6), Tucker (4), Tyler (3), Upshur (4), Wayne (86), Wetzel (3), Wirt (3), Wood (40), Wyoming (1).
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