Officials: West Virginia hospital staffing shortages causing concern ahead of flu season

“We still have staffing challenges across our health care system,” said James Hoyer, who leads the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts. “As you have staffing challenges, you have COVID patients, then you add in a severe flu season potentially, and this time of year also tends to be the time when we have more people in the hospital for a variety of respiratory-related issues.”

Throughout the summer, officials warned that the state could be on track to have 500 COVID-19 hospitalizations by Labor Day, a point of strategic and logistical concern for hospitals.

However, COVID-19 hospitalizations remained in the low to mid-300s through the end of August and have since continued to decline.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 153 COVID patients hospitalized statewide, including 29 patients in ICU units and 10 patients on ventilators, according to information from the Department of Health and Human Resources. There were also two pediatric COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide.

The state had the capacity to care for more than 800 hospitalized COVID-19 patients a year ago, but the benchmark was revised to 500 in early June.

Officials are “running through the numbers” to determine a new benchmark, Hoyer said last week.

“It is clearly going to adjust that number down below that 500 number that we’ve been paying attention to,” he said. “As we get into colder weather, and a combination of flu and Omicron, those numbers will adjust, and we’ll talk about those next week.”

On Wednesday, Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s COVID-19 czar, said the concern this winter is not that hospitals will be overrun with COVID patients.

“The worry is that we’ll have problems taking care of all of the people that need to be taken care of,” he said. “That will be stimulated and exacerbated by COVID and flu, but may be different than the previous models we were worried about with previous surges of COVID-19.”

The DHHR did not report any additional COVID-19 deaths Wednesday morning. Total deaths remain at 7,479 attributed to COVID-19.

West Virginians ages 6 months and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

All individuals ages 6 months and older should receive a primary series of vaccination, the initial set of shots that teaches the body to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19. At this time, one Omicron booster shot (bivalent) is recommended for everyone ages 5 years and older who completed the primary series, and their most recent COVID-19 shot was at least 2 months ago.

Visit the WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator, a free, online tool that helps individuals figure out when they may be due for a COVID-19 shot, making it easier to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine, visit vaccines.gov, vaccinate.wv.gov, or call 1-833-734-0965.

Please visit the COVID-19 testing locations page to locate COVID-19 testing.