West Virginia’s COVID statistics are improving nearly every day.
DHHR figures show the number of active COVID cases has steadily declined — from over 20,000 in late January to about 5,000 a month ago, and now to just 508 as of midnight Monday.
West Virginians continue to die from COVID, but those numbers are also declining. Hospital admissions for the virus are down from over 1,200 a few weeks ago to under 200.
But Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia’s COVID-19 czar, said on Talkline Tuesday that he was not ready to declare victory over the stubborn virus just yet.
“We certainly are seeing a real significant and important reduction in all the parameters — hospitalizations and cases from the most recent surge — but we’re not out of the woods until COVID allows us to be out of the woods.”
Marsh is cautious because the COVID virus is constantly mutating. Currently, BA.2, a subvariant of omicron, is spreading rapidly in the U.S. and elsewhere. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that BA.2 is now responsible for one-third of all COVID cases in the U.S.
This subvariant is more transmissible than the original omicron variant, but it is unclear if it causes more severe illness. Marsh said health officials need to keep a close eye on the new variant.
“As we look along the horizon, there are some concerning things going on in Europe and other places that should give us a little bit of pause before we celebrate too much,” Marsh said.
England has seen a rapid spread of BA.2, causing health officials there to offer another booster for individuals considered at-risk. “They’ve seen a pretty explosive increase in spread, largely in populations over 65 and those are the people who have also ended up increasing hospital numbers quite a bit,” Marsh said.
Meanwhile, as time passes more research is being conducted that will aid health officials and the public to better understand the best practices for staying safe during COVID.
For example, a CDC study of COVID patients at 21 hospitals in 18 states between Jan. 24 and March 11 found that two or three doses of mRNA vaccines were “associated with a 90% reduction in risk for COVID-19-associated IVM (invasive mechanical ventilation) or death.”
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told the Washington Post, “This is such solid information that reinforces the current recommendation to get vaccinated and boosted — and (the vaccine) worked for omicron.”
In addition, a separate CDC study looked at the controversial issue of masking in schools. Researchers examined 233 school districts in Arkansas and determined that “districts with universal mask requirements had a 23% lower incidence of COVID-19 among staff members and students compared with districts without mask requirements.”
The study concluded “Masks remain an important part of a multicomponent approach to prevent COVID-19 in K-12 settings, especially in communities with high levels of COVID-19.”
The vaccines work, and masking helps as part of a multi-prong approach to reducing the spread of the virus. Those are important findings to keep in mind, especially if COVID is not ready to let us out of the woods.
