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Staff Report
CHARLESTON -- Active cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus are nearing the 1,000 mark in West Virginia where 39 more deaths were confirmed since the last report on Monday, the Department of Health and Human Resources said.
The deaths included 29 confirmations found during the Bureau of Health's data reconciliation with the death certificates. Those deaths occurred in January, February and March.
Active cases of the virus were at 1,092 on Tuesday, a drop from 1,244 cases reported on Monday by the department. The most cases in the latest omicron surge was 21,717 on Jan. 22.
Local county active case counts as of Tuesday are: Calhoun 6; Doddridge 1; Jackson 7; Pleasants 2; Ritchie 8; Roane 7; Tyler 2; Wetzel 16; Wirt 0; Wood 37.
The death count since the pandemic began more than two years ago was at 6,598 people in West Virginia.
Tuesday's deaths were a 61-year-old man from Kanawha County, an 82-year-old man from Cabell County, a 91-year-old woman from Clay County, a 63-year-old man from Wyoming County, a 75-year-old woman from Kanawha County, a 75-year-old man from Berkeley County, a 68-year-old woman from Berkeley County, a 77-year-old man from Jefferson County, an 82-year-old man from Cabell County and a 57-year-old woman from Berkeley County.
The reconciliation deaths included a 60-year-old man from Ritchie County.
Deaths also were in Marion, Lincoln, Kanawha, Cabell, Randolph, Fayette, Ohio, Wayne, Randolph, Logan, Raleigh, Mercer, Greenbrier, Upshur, Monroe, Boone, McDowell and Berkeley counties. The youngest was a 43-year-old woman from Berkeley County and a 49-year-old man from Kanawha County.
"These deaths are a heartbreaking reminder of the threat this virus presents," department Secretary Bill J. Crouch said.
Crouch encouraged vaccinations and booster shots.
Ritchie County improved from yellow to green, the lowest level on the County Alert System Map based on infection rates. All counties in the region are now green.
Webster County remains at mid-level gold. Mingo County went from green to yellow, second lowest.
All other counties in the state are green.
The state reported 262 COVID-related patients are in the hospital with 160 of them unvaccinated. Hospitalizations dropped by 10 since Monday.
Seventy-two cases are in an intensive care unit, 47 unvaccinated, and 44 patients on a ventilator, 31 unvaccinated.
Five pediatric cases were reported.