KINGWOOD –- Preston County Health Department Administrator VJ Davis said 29.4% of Preston County residents have received their first doses of the COVID vaccine.
He went on to say the county has had 2,391 confirmed COVID cases, 214 probable cases, and 43 deaths.
Davis said during the past week there has been a small spike in cases that he attributes to the weather.
“We were back to three to four cases reported a day – to 56 cases reported over the past seven days. The weather is nice and regulations were lax,” he said. “The virus is still very active and there is a lot of mutant strains.”
Davis said 9,822 doses of COVID vaccine have been given. He said on Friday 150 more first doses will be given and 416 second doses.
“We (board of health) have three partners, Preston–Taylor Community Hospital, the hospital (Mon Health Preston Memorial) and the health department. Between us, we share 775 doses,” he said.
“We’re fortunate because of the agencies working together,” Dr. Fred Conley, county health officer, said. “Our health department has done a wonderful job.”
“Our OEM (Office of Emergency Management) director and assistant director are paramedics,” Davis said. “Duane (Hamilton, OEM director) took homebound and ran with it,” Davis said.
He said the health department has a list of homebound patients who can’t come in to the clinic to receive COVID vaccinations. Davis said Hamilton and a paramedic for KAMP ambulance each take 10 doses of the vaccine, call the homebound individuals and go out and administer the vaccine.
He said three weeks later, they go out and give the patients their second dose. Davis said so far between 60 and 70 homebound patients have been vaccinated.
Conley said Preston County was the first in the state to initiate a homebound COVID vaccination program.
“We haven’t thrown away one shot,” Davis said. “The state didn’t want to vary Moderna and Pfizer. They said if we started with Pfizer we will get it all the way through (the pandemic).
He said there are currently two legislative bills that, if passed, will affect the health department. The first is SB 12. Davis said SB12 will give the county commission the authority to go back 10 years and change health department regulations. He said for Preston County the only regulations that would be affected would be the smoking regulations.
Davis said both local health departments and county commissions are against this bill.
He said that bill targets harm reduction programs and if passed will require the programs to hold a license. Harm reduction includes the needle exchange program.
Davis said if the bill passes there will no harm reduction needle exchange programs in West Virginia.
TWEET@DominionPostWV
