COVID cases, outbreaks in long-term care facilities up

As new COVID cases keep rising around the state, long-term care facilities are also being hit, with Stonerise Princeton reporting a major outbreak.

According to the DHHR (Department of Health and Human Resources), the facility has reported 58 staff and 19 residents testing positive, but no deaths have been reported.

Gov. Jim Justice said Monday during his pandemic briefing the state now has 80 outbreaks at long-term care facilities around the state.

“We know how infectious this stuff is,” he said of the new Omicron variant. “It can absolutely whiplash around us and result in death. It is very rare for someone fully vaccinated and boosted dying.”

Dr. Clay Marsh, state COVID-19 Czar, said vaccines are playing an important role in reducing the risk of death and severe illness.

“It is a different variant and much, much better able to avoid our immune responses,” he said of Omicron BA2.12.1, now the dominant variant here and around the country.

That is why vaccinations are critical, he said.

Retired Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, director of the state Joint InterAgency Task Force, said he is working closely with the West Virginia Healthcare Association to make an extra effort to educate long-term care residents and families on the importance of vaccinations, especially the booster shots.

“We will watch that closely,” he said of the outbreaks.

Hoyer said the RT value, which measures the rate of community transmission (spread) of COVID bounces back and forth between 1 or just above 1, with 1 an indicator of virus “transmissions going on in our state.”

“We don’t want this thing to keep sliding and getting worse,” Justice said. “Please make sure that you’re up to date on your booster shots. Especially if you’re 50 or older, it is so, so important.”

Boosters are crucial.

“If you’re out of that time period, you’re out of any immunity to speak of at all,” Justice said. “You’re basically just winging it.”

As of Monday, active cases once again topped 2,500 with 1,701 new cases reported Monday, and hospitalization are approaching 200 again, with the DHHR reporting 192.

Both Mercer and McDowell counties are in the yellow category again on the state County Alert System map as local cases have been rising as well.

Mercer County reported 159 new cases in the last week, according to the DHHR, and McDowell County reported 25.

Justice also announced Monday that a consulting contract has been awarded to McChrystal Group LLC, of Alexandria, Va. to conduct a “top-to-bottom organizational assessment of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR).”

The review process will include the development of a strategic plan for the organization and financial structure of DHHR, he said, and McChrystal Group provided a cost estimate of $503,648 for the organizational assessment of DHHR and $578,770 to develop a strategic plan.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about the DHHR over the past several weeks,” he said. “The Legislature passed a bill that would have split DHHR in two, but I said that we needed to take a deeper look before we act too fast and hurt a bunch of people.

“The organizational problems within the DHHR didn’t start on my watch, but we can make them better. So we’re bringing in a consulting company to do a top-to-bottom review, and we will stay in constant contact with the Legislature to come up with the best possible solution.”

The assessment is scheduled to begin on June 10, and will last 120 days, meaning the assessment is planned to conclude by Oct. 8.

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com