CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — After nearly three weeks with both a high rate of infection and high positive testing percentage, Mingo County has moved out of the red level of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' County Alert System.
On the map, a total of 13 counties are in orange, 12 are in gold, 14 are in yellow and 16 in green.
Mingo County first entered the red Oct. 24, spending a significant portion of that time as the only county in the system's highest alert level.
Red is denoted in the system having either an infection rate — a population-adjusted rolling average of new cases — of at least 25 or a positivity rate — a rolling average of the percentage of the county's COVID-19 tests that return a positive result — of at least 8%.
The County Alert System takes whichever metric gives a lower color and applies it to the map, meaning a county needs to be red in both metrics to appear red.
As of Friday's report, Mingo County had achieved a positivity rate of 6.77, putting it into the orange. Its infection rate remains at a red-level 49.40.
But Mingo County is not alone in having a high rate of infection with a lower color. A total of 28 of the state's counties as of Friday have a rate of infection that would put them in the red, were it the only metric applied.
Statewide, according to DHHR's 7-day data on the COVID-19 dashboard, 4,611 cases have been identified in the past week.
In that same time period, 73,579 tests have been conducted — an average of more than 10,500 per day.
During the governor's press briefing Wednesday, Dr. Clay Marsh, executive dean of West Virginia University Health Sciences and the state's COVID-19 czar, noted that the data indicates state's increase in cases is not solely based on increased testing efforts.
"We have seen our cumulative percent positive rise from well under three (percent) to now over three," Marsh said. "That's been kind of an inexorable climb which demonstrates that at a percent of all the tests we're doing, we're seeing more positives, which implies that it's not just a proportional 'more tests, more positive cases,' but there's actually more disease in the state of West Virginia."
Earlier in that briefing, Marsh had outlined the four-part strategy to effectively monitor and deal with the virus. While he explained the importance of all, he noted the particular importance of one of the aspects — mitigation, via mask-wearing, social distancing, frequent hand washing and other efforts.
"This is really a time that we have to be even more committed to controlling that spread," he said.
Other aspects are increased testing efforts, effective contact tracing and keeping track of hospitalizations, Marsh said.
November 14, 2020 at 12:10AM
https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/mingo-moves-out-of-red-on-county-alert-system-map-statewide-infection-continues-increase/article_986d5ba4-2955-501d-8a98-ca53bbaa0ca1.html
Mingo moves out of red on County Alert System map; statewide infection continues increase - WV News
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment