Covid numbers do a U-turn, add active cases as positive test rate jumps

J. Damon Cain, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
·2 min read

Jan. 29—West Virginia reversed a recent coronavirus trend, adding 310 more active Covid cases through Friday, according to the online database compiled by the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR).

And infection rates across the region nearly doubled in most counties over the past two days.

On Friday, the state agency's online site reported 17,098 active cases, and by Saturday morning the number had climbed to 17,408.

Active cases had been as high as 21,717 as of Saturday, Jan. 22 — one week ago. In the past week, the total had trended downward and was a source of medical analysis that the state had crested its record-setting Omicron variant surge.

That still may be the case.

But other metrics on Saturday would indicate otherwise.

The state's positive test rate ballooned to 24.50 percent in the online report Saturday, just shy of a record 25.56 percent set Wednesday, Jan. 19. It was a pronounced one-day leap from the 17.53 percent mark reported Friday morning.

Five of nine counties in The Register-Herald's primary market recorded positive test rates higher than the state's on Saturday: Raleigh, 29.70 percent, up from 21.37 the day prior and from 23.55 one week ago; Summers, 28.87 percent, up from 25.00 the day prior and from 19.35 one week ago; Monroe, 28.48 percent, up from 6.90 the day prior and from 21.07 one week ago; Nicholas, 24.50 percent, up from 17.53 the day prior and from 18.89 one week ago; and Fayette, 25.44 percent, up from 17.86 the day prior and from 22.58 percent one week ago.

While Omicron has been diagnosed as having milder effects than the Delta variant, it is more highly transmissible — meaning more people are getting sick. And that is showing up in the statistics. Infection rates have risen dramatically over the past two days in each of the nine counties — in some cases doubling or nearly doubling their rates over the past two days.

Raleigh County recorded an infection rate on Friday of 188.89 cases per 100,000 people on a revolving seven-day average, up from 106.52 on Wednesday. Wyoming County posted the highest rate on Friday, at 238.87, up 52 percent from its Wednesday rate of 156.91.

In Nicholas County, its infection rate jumped 106.8 percent from Wednesday to Friday, climbing from 85.15 to 176.12. Similar percentage increases were recorded in Greenbrier County (92.6 percent), Monroe County (92.5 percent), McDowell County (89.5 percent), Mercer County (88.0 percent) and Fayette County (86.2 percent).

All nine counties landed in the red, the worst, on the state's color-coded map that measures the prevalence of the disease.

As of Saturday morning, the DHHR reported that 53.0 percent of all people in West Virginia had been fully vaccinated.