West Virginia’s COVID-19 death toll increased to 112 people on Wednesday, two of which have been attributed to a nursing home outbreak in Mercer County.
Everyone at the long-term care facility has now been tested for COVID-19 and the state is going to test everyone again after the deaths were recorded, Gov. Jim Justice said in a news conference. He said the state took action as soon as it became aware of the situation.
Stefanie Compton, the administrator of the Princeton Health Care Center, said that the fourth round of testing should be completed Thursday and that all residents are monitored for COVID-19 symptoms frequently.
“All current residents who are symptomatic and/or confirmed cases are being isolated to specific Covid-19 designated care areas,” Compton said. “Those individuals are being cared for by designated/dedicated staff members. Many who have tested positive have been without symptoms. There are currently five individuals that are displaying Covid-like symptoms, however they recently tested negative.”
During his news conference, Justice said the elderly are at the highest risk for dying of COVID-19, but that it is not only killing elderly people.
“This thing is a killer,” Justice said. “It especially attacks our older people. But we’ve had a 47 year old die today too and a 60 year old. … We can’t drop our guard. We’ve got to stay on top of this.”
West Virginia has seen an uptick in daily cases this month after the state began to reopen its economy. In the most recent 15 days, the state has tallied more than 98 new cases in all but one. This month, most days have had more than 100 new cases, but before July the largest number of cases per day was 75.
The state has 1,625 active cases. There have been 6,326 total cases.
