by Kate Evans
Morgan County has 25 new cases of COVID-19 reported as of Friday, May 27 for the week of May 20 to May 26, boosting county COVID transmission levels from low to medium levels. As of Friday, Morgan County had 15 active COVID cases.
Morgan County was green on the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) COVID transmission dashboard map. More than half of West Virginia counties were yellow on the map and the rest green, indicating a rise of state COVID- 19 cases from late April when the whole state was green.
Cases, vaccinations
Morgan County has had 3,762 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 609 cumulative probable cases of the virus-a total of 4,371 COVID cases as of Friday, May 27. Some 4,287 county residents have recovered from COVID-19. The county COVID death toll still stands at 69.
The highest percentages of COVID-19 cases are in ages 41-50 (15.83%), ages 51-60 (14.76%) and ages 31-40. (12.97%)
Some 33.1% of Morgan County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID- 19. About 15.4% of county residents have gotten their COVID-19 booster shot as of Friday, with 34% of ages 65 and older having received their booster shots.
Some 15.55% of children age five-11 are considered fully vaccinated with the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. Morgan County Schools Superintendent Kristen Tuttle Morgan County Schools said at the May 17 school board meeting that there had been an uptick in school COVID-19 cases.
There was one Warm Springs Middle School staff with COVID and two staff cases at Widmyer Elementary. There were also seven Widmyer Elementary student COVID cases in different classrooms, one Pleasant View Elementary student case and one middle school student case.
For the week of May 19- May 26, four positive COVID-19 student cases were reported at Warm Springs Intermediate School and two positive COVID student cases at Berkeley Springs High School.
Booster shots
Everyone ages five and older should receive one booster after completing their COVID-19 vaccine primary series, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FDA. The FDA just approved a single Pfizer booster dose for children ages 5-11 who are five months removed from their primary COVID vac- cine series for the Pfizer COVID vaccine.
Second booster shots were previously authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDC for those 50 years old and over who are at least four months removed from their first booster dose, along with immunocompromised individuals age 12 and over.
Governor Jim Justice urged families to heed medical advice and get vaccinated and boosted. He said that active cases had quadrupled in the past month and had risen by 115 in West Virginia since last week. Hospitalizations had also increased slightly.
