MORGANTOWN — The Hatfield-McCoy Trail will reopen May 21, Gov. Jim Justice announced Friday.
He said he and his team had to weigh the various health and safety risks against the trail’s economic benefits, and the knowledge that it draws out-of-state visitors.
The trail reopening guidelines include a list of recommended limitations, he said. Riders are encouraged to wear masks or face shields when stopped. They should self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms and check their temperature before arriving. Anyone with a temperature over 100 degrees may not enter the trail.
Justice said sick riders will be removed; the chart on his website says they must leave immediately and seek medical help.
Congregating along trails I not permitted. Riders are discouraged from sharing vehicles with anyone outside their group or party. Don’t share equipment or masks.
“We will watch this like a hawk to the very best of our abilities,” he said. “I am happy about reopening the trails but I am also concerned.”
Justice said city and county guidance for CARES Act applications should be issued next Friday, but he cautioned that Congress may be slow about completing the rules and not everything may be clear by then.
Bureau for Public Health Commissioner Cathy Slemp said the Department of Health and Human Resources would be publishing county-by-county COVID-19 data for the African-American population on Friday afternoon.
Statewide, she said, there have 95 positive tests for African Americans out of 1,310 total positives. The positive rate for African-Americans is higher than their overall percentage in the population: 7.3% have tested positive while they make up 4.2% of the total population.
There have been 3 counties with at least one African-American positive case, she said, and seven where the positives exceed their percentage in the population: Monongalia, Marion, Berkeley, Jefferson, McDowell, Mercer and Putnam.
DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said the African-American task force has been formed and they are working to set up a Monday meeting.
Friday afternoon’s COVID-19 numbers from the DHHR were 1,323 positives out of 59,567 test results, a 2.2s% cumulative rate, with 52 deaths.
Justice said the daily growth rate was back down to 1.8% after a one-day spike to 3.1%. The gap between recovered cases and active cases continues to widen, with 740 people recovered and 488 cases active.
Sunday is Mother’s Day and Crouch said, “There are ways to honor Mom that do not pose a risk for disease transmission.” He offered some suggestions: schedule an online call or just a regular phone call. Send a gift. Make a video. Meet outside if you have the space to keep separated.
“Mother’s Day wont look quite the same as it has in the past but it’s important that we protect our mothers, protect our families,” he said.
The Dominion Post asked a question sparked by a New York Times article that described how Nebraska is expanding testing by doing group testing. Ten test samples, for example, might be pooled into single test. The individuals are re-tested only if the group yields a positive. So out of 10 groups, only one may have to be re-tested.
The method has pros and cons: It’s not effective if a high percentage of the population is infected and too many groups would require re-testing.
Justice said that group testing may make some mathematical sense and allow testing to move faster, but West Virginia wants to be moving forward so we don’t have to cluster.
COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh expanded on that. Their are many ways to strategize testing, he said. Wes Virginia wants to be more specific in its testing moving forward, looking at congregate populations and areas with COVID-19 activity, mintoring downward trends and local spikes.
They want to take individual tests in countries, he said, and derive county-level R0 levels – the measurement of how many people a single infected person may infect. Below 1 is good; statewide the R0 dropped slightly from Thursday to Friday, from .89 to .85.
The pandemic has led to closures at meat and poultry plants, and the state’s Potomac Highlands area has a significant chicken and turkey industry, including a Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Poultry processors are having to deal with disease prevention and the surplus building up from lack of demand at the fast food restaurants, according to a WVU Extension release.
In light of that, Justice fielded a question on possible disruption of the food chain. He acknowledged that West Virginia’s limited agriculture industry means we rely heavily on imported food. The National Guard was on its way to the Pilgrim’s Pride plant to do testing.
But, as always, he’s optimistic. “Do I think there’s going to be food shortages? Absolutely not.” But that’s provided that the nation continues to move forward and we manage the disease until we get to the bridge drug that will buy time for a vaccine to be produced.
He believes, he said, that within a four-month window we’ll have that drug, and in another four months we’ll have the vaccine.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
