One Upshur County patient has recovered from COVID-19, one in home isolation

Brian Bergstrom
April 9, 2020

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in West Virginia has more than doubled in the last week, climbing from 217 on April 2 to 523 as of Thursday afternoon.

In addition to the updated totals, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources also released more in-depth statistics about the known cases during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Overall, 11 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in West Virginia have recovered to date, according to state coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh.

Of the 504 cases that had been identified at the time of the press conference, 57 people had recovered, five had died and 442 remained active.

Marsh further broke down the active cases: 26 people are in an intensive care unit on ventilators, 13 are in the ICU and have come off ventilators and another 40 are on a hospital medical-surgical floor. The majority of the state’s active COVID-19 cases, totaling 363 people, are on home isolation.

Of the two cases that have been reported in Upshur County, Upshur-Buckhannon Health Department Nurse Director Sue McKisic said one case is no longer considered active, meaning that person is out of quarantine. The second person who tested positive for COVID-19 is currently on home isolation for a 14-day quarantine period.

According to data from the DHHR, the curve has steepened in recent days, with 67 new cases Tuesday and 71 on Wednesday, when the DHHR moved to reporting cases twice-daily. The Thursday update represented an increase of 40 new known cases throughout the state.

“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports as of 5 p.m. on April 9, 2020, there have been 13,863 residents tested for COVID-19, with 523 positive, 13,340 negative and five deaths,” according to a press release.

New COVID-19 positive results were reported Thursday in Berkeley, Brooke, Cabell, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Marion, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Monongalia, Ohio, Putnam, Roane, Wayne and Wood counties.

West Virginia also reported its fifth COVID-19 related death on Thursday, an 89-year-old woman who was a resident in the Sundale Nursing Home in Morgantown.

CONFIRMED CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (4), Berkeley (82), Boone (1), Braxton (1), Brooke (2), Cabell (17), Fayette (1), Greenbrier (3), Hampshire (2), Hancock (7), Hardy (2), Harrison (29), Jackson (20), Jefferson (45), Kanawha (73), Lewis (1), Logan (8), Marion (31), Marshall (5), Mason (7), McDowell (4), Mercer (7), Mineral (3), Monongalia (76), Morgan (4), Nicholas (2), Ohio (20), Pendleton (1), Pleasants (1), Preston (6), Putnam (11), Raleigh (5), Randolph (3), Roane (3), Taylor (3), Tucker (3), Tyler (2), Upshur (2), Wayne (6), Wetzel (2), Wirt (1), Wood (16), Wyoming (1).

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