By Shawn Stinson
FRANKLIN – Pendleton County remains listed as a green county on the state’s coronavirus map as West Virginia recovers from last month’s surge.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources coronavirus website lists Pendleton County’s positivity rate at 0.36, 0.4 and 0.47 on the Feb. 26, 27 and 28 updates, respectively. The positivity rates are in the green range.
Pendleton’s other indicator used by state health officials to determine a county’s color were in the yellow range for the three days. The infection rate was 11.48, 14.35 and 19.13 on the Feb. 26, 27 and 28 updates, respectively.
There were four new coronavirus cases reported since Feb. 22 in the county by Pendleton County Health Department officials. There were three cases reported on Feb. 24 and one case announced on Feb. 25 on the office’s Facebook page.
Health department officials said they no longer “actively follow cases” and are no longer sure when “illnesses start” to calculate an end date for individuals to remain quarantined.
Gov. Jim Justice during his Feb. 23 coronavirus press briefing announced the number of active cases, hospitalizations, ICU patients and patients on ventilators are on the decline.
“We’re really making improvement,” Justice said. “We are making some progress but I ask everyone to still not forget the West Virginians we’ve lost.”
There were 3,574 active coronavirus cases in the state on Feb. 23, a drop of more than 83% in one month.
The WVDHHR coronavirus website lists 27 cases of the Delta variant in individuals in the county. There has also been one case of the Omicron variant in a county resident since the start of the pandemic.
There have been 238 breakthrough cases in county residents. There remains one breakthrough case in a county resident. A breakthrough case is defined as an individual testing positive for the coronavirus despite being deemed as fully vaccinated.
