Two more state residents have died to COVID-19, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported Wednesday evening.

“The 11^th COVID-19 associated death is a 78-year old female from Wayne County, and the 12^th is a 70-year old male from Mingo County,” the DHHR said in a press release.

The news came as the number of known cases in West Virginia crossed the 700 mark, with 24 new cases pushing the total to 718. Those were among the 597 overall test results reported Wednesday.

“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports as of 5 p.m., on April 15, 2020, there have been 17,821 laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 718 positive, 17,103 negative and 12 deaths,” according to the press release.

In his daily press conference Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice sought to reassure residents he would be cautious about any plan to reopen parts of the state, which has been under a stay-at-home order for three weeks.

That includes schools, he noted.

“I don’t want to take away hope, because I am hopeful things will continue get better and we will be able to go back to school for a period of time,” Justice said. “But you can rest assured there is no way on earth that I am going to condone going back unless it absolutely has been advised to me over and over that we are in great shape.”

He also said that once the state does begin to reopen, it will be in a different world than the one before the virus began to spread.

“Things are going to be somewhat different for sure. We’re not going to be able to rush right back out and get ourselves into a bigger mess than we’ve already been in,” Justice said. “We don’t want to rush back out and do things that would cause us to have relapse that would be much worse.”

New COVID-19 cases were identified Wednesday in Berkeley, Hampshire, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Mineral, Monongalia, Morgan, Wayne and Wood counties.

CONFIRMED CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (4), Berkeley (101), Boone (1), Braxton (1), Brooke (3), Cabell (26), Fayette (2), Grant (1), Greenbrier (3), Hampshire (6), Hancock (7), Hardy (3), Harrison (28), Jackson (34), Jefferson (56), Kanawha (91), Lewis (2), Lincoln (1), Logan (8), Marion (39), Marshall (7), Mason (9), McDowell (6), Mercer (8), Mineral (6), Mingo (1), Monongalia (83), Monroe (1), Morgan (7), Nicholas (3), Ohio (22), Pendleton (1), Pleasants (1), Preston (6), Putnam (13), Raleigh (6), Randolph (4), Roane (2), Summers (1), Taylor (4), Tucker (4), Tyler (3), Upshur (3), Wayne (69), Wetzel (3), Wirt (2), Wood (25), Wyoming (1).

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