Another surge? You know what to do

There is less testing being done, and those who use home test kits seldom report the results. So there are likely more cases out there than we are aware of. This isn’t just a state problem; it is something health officials are dealing with nationwide.

“The estimates are that perhaps as many as one out of 10 positive cases are being documented at the national level,” said state COVID Czar Dr. Clay Marsh. “So we do know that we are likely fairly substantially under-representing the number of cases.”

To get a better handle on the situation, officials are looking at COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Deaths nationwide are averaging about 350 a day. That’s less than we’ve experienced, but, still, that’s a significant number by any measure.

Gov. Justice is continuing his admonitions to state residents to get vaccinated.

“There’s a way to manage this. There’s a way to live with this. … We can put this terrible disease in its place. We don’t need more and more folks dying. You can stop it. I’ll say over and over to go have fun, but for God’s sake … get yourself protected, and then go have fun,” he said.

The United States just passed a grim milestone: 1 million deaths from COVID-19. West Virginia has marked almost 7,000.

If these figures do not give you pause, let us put it into perspective.

The state of Rhode Island has a population just over 1 million people. Since March of 2020, that many Americans have died — enough to make up an entire state.

In West Virginia, we’ve lost essentially the population of Tucker County.

Dr. Marsh put it into more stark terms: “We have basically experienced a ‘9/11 event’ in our country for 336 days. That would be a million people. It just gives you the scope. It’s really amazing, and it’s more people than the combined World War I and World War II deaths.”

What is especially troubling is that so many of these deaths were preventable. If more people had been vaccinated in the last 18 months, we would not have seen such tragic results.

Yet, with the vaccination rate pretty much stagnant at little more than 50% in the state, we’re seeing the COVID-19 virus mutating more and more into new variants, many of which are more contagious than the ones before.

Dr. Marsh recommends that if you are vaccinated, you can enjoy all that summer has to offer. But if you are in large crowds, wear a mask. Or avoid large crowds altogether.

Mandates are history. We are on our own in many respects. But there are things we can do. Get vaccinated. Wear masks in crowds. Don’t take unnecessary chances.

We hope predictions of a new surge prove to be wrong. But the experts have been very good at predicting previous surges, and the outcomes have been the same. More needless deaths, more sorrow and despair.