More than 500 West Virginians have died from COVID-19, the W.Va. Department of Health and Human Resources announced Saturday.
According to the DHHR, the Mountain State set new records with 655 new COVID-19 cases and 15 additional deaths being reported Saturday.
Locally, dozens of new COVID-19 cases were reported, with Randolph County (20), Barbour (15), Upshur (5), Lewis (3) and Webster County (3) all announcing new cases.
The deaths include a 72-year old female from Mingo County, a 52-year old male from Mercer County, a 72-year old male from Raleigh County, a 67-year old male from Mingo County, an 85-year old female from Cabell County, an 80-year old male from Fayette County, a 68-year old female from Wirt County, an 83-year old female from Marshall County, a 59-year old male from Cabell County, a 49-year old male from Summers County, a 90-year old female from Summers County, a 77-year old female from Preston County, an 82-year old male from Boone County, a 90-year old female from Boone County, and a 98-year old female from Boone County.
The state has now crossed the 3% cumulative percent positivity level Gov. Jim Justice has said for months would be the level for additional actions to halt the spread of the virus.
But with deaths and cases mounting, the governor on Friday said he was not prepared to take any additional steps yet and gave no indication when that might happen.
Justice also said he had asked his health experts to see if they could find a way to let athletes in counties with high infection rates compete in playoff sporting events.
Although the WVSSAC initially said they would stick to current map, they announced a change later Friday that would allow red and orange counties to delay football playoff games to see if the infection or positivity rates might decline enough to play.
In Upshur County, Saturday’s update removed one probable case from Nov. 5 and added one probable and three confirmed cases to Nov. 6. It’s unclear where the additional two cases added to Saturday’s total came from, as the DHHR daily data only dates back seven days.
Upshur County is yellow on the daily alert map due to its positivity percentage, meaning the state will likely permit schools to reopen for the upcoming week. The county remains in the orange alert level by infection rate.
A total of 47 cases are active in Upshur County, according to the DHHR.
“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports as of 10 a.m., November 7, 2020, there have been 835,140 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 27,742 total cases and 502 deaths,” according to a press release.
About 6,454 West Virginia cases remain active, according DHHR data. Of the cases that are no longer active, 20,786 people have recovered and 502 have died. The daily percent positive was 4.79%.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (217), Berkeley (1874), Boone (446), Braxton (89), Brooke (282), Cabell (1783), Calhoun (37), Clay (74), Doddridge (77), Fayette (840), Gilmer (116), Grant (206), Greenbrier (246), Hampshire (175), Hancock (272), Hardy (117), Harrison (731), Jackson (455), Jefferson (700), Kanawha (4102), Lewis (138), Lincoln (298), Logan (834), Marion (456), Marshall (544), Mason (197), McDowell (167), Mercer (896), Mineral (329), Mingo (728), Monongalia (2471), Monroe (275), Morgan (177), Nicholas (211), Ohio (764), Pendleton (79), Pleasants (45), Pocahontas (76), Preston (264), Putnam (1123), Raleigh (951), Randolph (480), Ritchie (69), Roane (119), Summers (169), Taylor (182), Tucker (69), Tyler (80), Upshur (300), Wayne (672), Webster (42), Wetzel (266), Wirt (58), Wood (957), Wyoming (417).
