MORGANTOWN — COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh introduced a new term during Tuesday’s COVID-19 press briefing: super-spreaders.
There’s a measure called “dispersion factor” that describes the percentage of people infected who are infecting others. Not everyone spreads the virus equally.
Research around the world, he said, shows that as few as 1% may be responsible for up to 70% to 80% percent, but more consistently, about 10% to 20% are responsible for 80% of the spread; 70% don’t spread at all.
As he’s said before people who are presymptomatic or in the early stages of symptoms have the highest viral loads and can spread. So if you feel sick or have cold-like symptoms, stay home. And wear a mask if you have to be around others. “If we’re a super spreader, could spread to a lot of people.”
A single person in South Korea, he said, led to infecting thousands. In Hong Kong, one person led to infecting 300.
He also talked about three “C’s” important to preventing spread. Avoid close spaces, close contact (especially being with the same people consistently for 15-30 minutes) and crowds.
As the Department of Health and Human Resources is expanding testing, it’s also expanding contact tracing. DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said they have about about 208 people trained to do that now and are constantly training more.
People have heard about some other numbers, he said, referred to as a low surge range and a high surge range. The low range is 240, the high is 540. “Those numbers we don’t think we’ll get to,” but they are training more.
The Dominion Post has received inquiries about opening summer youth camps and passed that to Gov. Jim Justice.
“We’ve absolutely had a lot of discussions about it,” he said. They’re trying to address some level of guidelines. “I hope we’ll have some announcements on that very soon.”
His office has received calls on the topic, too, he said. As The Dominion Post pointed out, camps involve large gatherings with lots of close contact. “We haven’t quite gotten it all put together.”
Justice fielded a question about resuming school in the fall. He said the Department of Education is working on that. “We’re kind of sitting back and waiting on them.” They don’t want to put kids and teachers in an unsafe situation. “I surely hope and pray we can get back to school.”
Justice also fielded a question on the economy and what plan he ha in place to assure a solid budget at the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
He repeated much of what he’s said before about daily discussions with his money people, sufficien tcash on hand and his confidence that the federal CARES Act rules will continue evolving.
But he also said they have a plan in place. “You can’t just do that wishing on Peter Pan and Rainbow Brite.”
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