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ELKINS -- Although the state's active COVID-19 cases are currently at the lowest total since the end of December, health officials warn residents that now is not the time to let their guard down.
"It's still out there and it is still spreading throughout our county," Bonnie Woodrum, the Randolph-Elkins Health Department's infectious disease specialist, told The Inter-Mountain Monday. "We still have cases coming in every day and as everyone knows by now, this omicron variant is very contagious."
The Randolph-Elkins Health Department's last running count of active cases came a week ago when there were close to 350 in the county. Woodrum said that number may have declined somewhat since then.
"I think it is possible that the active cases in the county are down a little bit from our last count," she said. "But there are still lots of cases and we can not abandon precaution."
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported Monday that this week's active case total dropped to under 11,000 for the first time since Dec. 28. There are currently 10,700 active cases, which is down from last week's total of 12,843.
Despite the active case decline across the state, officials are still concerned with the amount of hospitalizations there are in West Virginia.
On Monday, the DHHR reported that there were 1,004 patients in the state's hospitals with 215 of those in ICU and 123 on ventilators. There are 18 COVID-19 positive children in the hospital in West Virginia, four in ICU and four on ventilators.
"Even though the cases are down this week, the number of people hospitalized is still going up," Woodrum said. "Yesterday's count from (Davis Medical Center) was more than 42 percent of the in-patients were COVID-related. That's the highest number that I can recall."
There were 31 new COVID-related deaths in West Virginia over the weekend, running the total to date to 5,877. There have been eight deaths attributed to COVID in Randolph County since the start of the new year.
"COVID is still a serious thing to be dealt with," Woodrum said. "And there are more children with COVID than ever before."
Another major concern is the amount of active cases on the rise in prisons and jails. There are currently 915 inmates and 234 staff members who are COVID positive in West Virginia.
During Gov. Jim Justice's virtual COVID-19 briefing on Monday, he mourned the loss of the state's fourth correctional officer, 31-year-old Christoper Scarberry, to the virus. Scarberry worked at the Western Regional Jail in Cabell County.
"The prisons and jails are having a tough time because of how contagious omicron is," Woodrum said. "You have all of the inmates living in close contact to one another and it just keeps spreading. Things always spread among people who live in close quarters."