MORGANTOWN — After fielding questions from The Dominion Post and another media outlet, Gov. Jim Justice promised on Tuesday that his team will have a report Wednesday on the work group the Department of Health and Human Resources is assembling to help track and manage data regarding COVID-19 in West Virginia’s African-American communities.
As it is nationally, the COVID-19 positive rate is proportionally higher among the state’s African-American population than among caucasians.
DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said last week that a work group is being created to help DHHR process and understand the data on this issue. The Dominion Post asked on Tuesday when the group will begin its work and what the composition of the group will be.
Crouch said initially, “We have done a great deal of work on that.” Jill Upson, director of the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs contributed. “We are close to putting that all together and being able to make an announcement.”
Justice then interceded, saying they’ve compiled the numbers, and Crouch confirmed they’ve complied all the raw data. They have numbers from every county and group membership recommendations ready to present to the governor.
When asked what the role of the group will be, Justice said, “I wish to goodness that we would just come right out and tell the people all the things that have already been done.” That’s when he promised to give a report on the status of the data and the group on Wednesday. “We know there’s an issue there and we’ve done lots and lots and lots of work.”
Justice announced that workers who previously exhausted their regular unemployment benefits can apply Wednesday for a 13-week benefit extension through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. They can apply at uc.workforcewv.org.
He took a moment to dispels rumors that his office has given special permission for certain nonessential businesses to open early. He said his office doesn’t do that.
Justice said he’s been taking calls regarding the resumption of Little League baseball, youth sports and reopening the Hatfield-McCoy Trail. Speaking just for himself, he said if there’s a way to do those things, he’d like to, and knows Little League and youth sports need a date.
“I’m really, really hopeful that that date is somewhere close to June the First if we can pull it off.”
COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh talked about The Comeback, which will be more complex than the initial phase of curbing the spread, and riskier in some ways. Texas is reopening and saw its highest two days of case increases with 68 deaths over the weekend. Georgia is also seeing a rise in cases as it reopens.
“We should not think that we are finished with the COVID pandemic, he said. It takes 10 days to two weeks to see the initial impact of businesses reopening and two cycles to see the full extent. So we need to give enough time to see the health and well-being effects as The Comeback proceeds, and the state needs to give the right guidance for each week’s list of businesses.
Crouch gave an update on Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer cards to help feed kids during the summer. He said that families who receive SNAP, Medicaid or WV Works for school-age child will receive them by or before mid-June. The benefits will be added to existing cards. Those who don’t receive any of those benefits will receive the P-EBT cards by the end of June.
Marsh answered a a question regarding removing counties from the hot spot list and the updated methodology for determining hot spots.
He said that the state is trying to transition from looking at the state as single entity to looking to the county level. Moving forward, instead of using an arbitrary number of 20 cases to put counties on the list, they want to look at the rate of change over a seven-day rolling average.
And they want to separate low-population counties – where a few positives can make their rate shoot up – from higher-population counties and monitor community spread as opposed to concentrated nursing home outbreaks.
Tuesday afternoon’s COVID-19 numbers from DHHR were 1,242 positive cases out of 545,157 test results – a 2.25% cumulative rate – with 50 deaths (no new deaths since Saturday).
Justice pointed to another positive trend: Sometime around April 27-28 the number of recovered cases exceeded the number of active cases and now stands at 510 active and 667 recovered.
West Virginia has also tested a higher percentage of its population than its neighbors and the nation as a whole. West Virginia has tested 2.99% of its residents, compared to the national average of 2.13% and our neighbor states ranging from 1.25% for Virginia to 2.18% for Maryland.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
