By Shawn Stinson
FRANKLIN – County health officials announced the county’s latest death associated with the coronavirus.
Pendleton County Health Department officials revealed the death of an 84-year-old male on March 28 on its Facebook page. It was the county’s 18th death associated with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the county since the start of the pandemic topped the 2,000-mark on March 24 when county health officials revealed four cases on its Facebook page. There have been 2,004 cases in county residents.
Since March 21, there have been eight cases reported by county health officials. They urged county residents to “please wear your mask when out in public” and “consider getting vaccinated.”
Despite the uptick in cases in the county, Pendleton remained listed as a green county on the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources coronavirus map. All 55 counties in the state were labeled as green on the March 28 update.
Pendleton’s positivity rate was 0.5, 0.73 and 0.95 on the March 26, 27 and 28 updates, respectively. The county’s positivity rate was in the green.
The other indicator used by state health officials to determine a county’s color on the coronavirus map dropped to the yellow level on the March 27 and 28 updates. The county’s infection rate was 9.57 (green) on the March 26 update. The rate slipped to 10.76 and 11.48 on the March 27 and 28 updates, respectively.
The WVDHHR coronavirus website continues to list 27 cases of the Delta variant and one case of the Omicron variant in a county resident since the start of the pandemic. It also lists 251 breakthrough cases and one breakthrough death in Pendleton County. A breakthrough case is defined as an individual testing positive for the coronavirus despite being deemed fully vaccinated by health officials.
During his March 25 coronavirus press briefing, Gov. Jim Justice reported all 55 counties were listed as green. There were 460 active cases of the coronavirus at the time in the state. There has been a decrease of nearly 97% in cases during the past two months.
“Our entire map is green,” Justice said during the briefing. “Think about that. West Virginia, you’ve been to you know where and back. Along the way, we lost a lot of people, but we kept heading north. We kept pulling the rope together and now we’re all green.”
