By Shawn Stinson
FRANKLIN – The latest coronavirus-related death was announced earlier this month.
Officials with the Pendleton County Health Department announced the death of a 93-year-old female on March 1 on the organization’s Facebook page. The death was the 17th of a county resident since the start of the pandemic.
The last coronavirus death was revealed on Feb. 18 and was a 71-year-old male who had been in the hospital.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Pendleton County since the start of the pandemic inches closer to a milestone. County health officials announced there have been a total of 1,989 cases in the county. There were eight new cases announced since March 1 in the county.
Pendleton County remains listed as a green county on the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources coronavirus map. The county’s positivity rate remained in the green level at 0.86, 1.03 and 1.03 on the March 5, 6 and 7 updates. The county’s infection rate was in the yellow level at 17.94, 17.22 and 17.22, respectively, on the updates.
The state coronavirus map listed 45 counties as green, eight counties were listed as yellow, one (Clay) was gold and another (Webster) was orange.
The number of breakthrough cases in the county increased to 244. There remains one breakthrough death in a county resident. A breakthrough case is defined as a positive test for the coronavirus in an individual despite being labeled as full vaccinated by health officials.
During his March 7 coronavirus press briefing, Gov. Jim Justice announced the number of active cases in the state dropped below 2,000 for the first time since July 28, 2021. Justice said there were 1,909 active cases in state residents.
“We’re continuing to watch and all of our numbers and maps look significantly better,” Justice said.