MORGANTOWN — Tuesday’s COVID briefing from the governor’s office was plagued with technical glitches but the topics of increased hospitalizations, a TikTok ban and the coming winter storm came up before the briefing suddenly cut off.
Hospital cases dipped to 114 on Nov. 23 but have been steadily climbing since, with the post-Thanksgiving surge and the onset of the BQ variants. Tuesday’s count was 225 with 30 in ICUs and 13 on ventilators.
The case count is also climbing, going from a low of 624 on Nov. 27 to 1,168 on Tuesday. And that doesn’t count the many home tests that go unreported, Gov. Jim Justice said. “If you don’t have your booster shot it’s not going to be a good day.”
COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh mentioned a new omicron variant, BF.7, spreading in China but not yet seen elsewhere. While it’s highly infectious, he said, it’s so far confined to China and people here are getting sufficiently protected with the new boosters and the use of Paxlovid. It looks like 2022 numbers will be better than 2020 and 2021.
TikTok ban
On Monday, state Auditor JB McKuskey and Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, announced a ban on TikTok on state government devices and all computer networks associated with the auditor’s office. The ban includes government-issued devices used by WV Oasis, which is the central repository for all the state’s financial data, and devices within the many departments of the State Auditor’s Office.
They are also calling for all state, county and city governments to ban the use of TikTok on their government-issued devices, with an exception for public safety. They noted that the FBI has said that the Chinese government could use the app to control data collection on Americans.
McCuskey and Weld are also preparing legislation to prohibit nations of concern from acquiring property through the West Virginia property tax sale process. There have already been instances where countries from this list, which includes Russia, China and North Korea, are harming American interests through this process, they said.
Justice said he received a letter on this topic from Weld. His office’s cybersecurity team had already banned the app, but his team doesn’t manage other state networks.
So, he said, he will submit a bill to put into law that this app and all other apps owned by the Chinese government will be banned from state government.
Justice’s cybersecurity team leader Josh Spence said, “It’s an ever-changing threat landscape, and we have to continually be vigilant to monitor that landscape so that we can be proactive to stay ahead of the threat actors.” The governor’s proposed bill is the right move.
Winter storm
Justice also announced that he’s declared a State of Preparedness for all 55 counties based on the winter storm event forecast to hit the state this week.
The National Weather Service predicts heavy snow, freezing rain, dangerous wind chills and strong winds beginning Wednesday and continuing throughout the week and into the coming holiday weekend.
Justice said in a release following his announcement that the declaration directs the State Emergency Operations Center and its partner agencies to prepare to respond to the impending winter storm.
Coordinating agencies are on standby to report to the Emergency Operations Center at the West Virginia Emergency Management Division (EMD) should the need arise. The National Weather Service will hold daily briefings for state agencies and local partners, and EMD liaisons will provide updates from each county.
Also, he said, the EMD Watch Center has increased staffing through the weekend to perform around-the-clock monitoring of the weather system and will notify leaders if local emergency management agencies request assistance.
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp
EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
