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ELKINS -- The Miss Barbour County Fair Queen's Pageant will still take place today, despite the Barbour County Fair being canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.
Officials announced Friday that the pageant will take place at 6 p.m. but it will be closed to the general public. The event will be streamed live on Facebook.
Barbour County officials canceled the fair on Thursday morning during an emergency Barbour County Commission meeting. Barbour County Health Department officials said during the meeting that they would still consider allowing the Queen's Pageant and 4-H livestock shows and sales to take place. No public announcement has been made since then about whether the 4-H events will be offered, however.
Also on Friday, Jennifer Burner, the administrator of the Barbour County Health Department, responded to social media criticism of the decision to cancel the Fair.
"This decision was based on what was felt to be in the best interest of the health of all Barbour County citizens," Burner wrote in a Health Department social media post. "The Delta variant is producing transmission rates at roughly 1,000 times the original strain we faced in early 2020. This higher transmission rate makes it more likely to spread even in outdoor events, particularly those with high attendance.
"We have heard your concerns and arguments regarding the state fair," the post continues. "However, our concern and our focus at the Barbour County Health Department is our Barbour County community and our decision was based on Barbour County data.
"As of today, we have 232 active cases. The daily average of active cases in Barbour County has increased by 257% in the last 14 days and in that same length of time, the hospitalization rate has increased by 231%," Burner wrote.
"It has been expressed by our healthcare partners that they are already facing staffing shortages. Our local hospital and hospitals across the region are already at capacity and facing shortages in beds and staff.
"This projected 20,000-person mass gathering would pose a significant health risk and place an impossible burden on an already stressed medical community by driving the number of active cases higher than the Barbour County medical community has the capacity to care for."
The Barbour County Health Department also posted on Friday that, "Currently Barbour County has only 44.7% of its population, 12 years or older, fully vaccinated, and only 49.5% with at least one dose according to the state site."