COVID-19 death reported in Kanawha County; Fayette County reported expected Thursday

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Department of Health and Human Resources has confirmed the death of a 59th West Virginian in connection with COVID-19.

The agency reported the death of a 70-year-old Kanawha County man Wednesday evening. The 13th COVID-19 death in Kanawha County.

“As another West Virginian is lost, we remember the family in our thoughts,” DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said.

There have now been 67,110 coronavirus tests given in West Virginia since early March. The DHHR said 1,404 of those tests have been positive, 65,706 negative. The state has a positive test rate of 2.09 percent.

Fayette County has reported increasing positive cases in recent days. It had 36 confirmed at the end of the day on Wednesday. Several of those linked to Montgomery General Hospital. Crouch told reporters Wednesday a report on Fayette County would be coming Thursday from state Health Officer Dr. Cathy Slemp.

“We follow all 55 counties closely, in terms of those numbers, and we’ve modified the way we are doing that over time,” Crouch said. “Dr. Slemp will be here to address that.”

There are 52 people in the hospital for COVID-19, nine of them in ICU, with five being treated on ventilators.

Confirmed cases per county include:

Barbour (7), Berkeley (196), Boone (9), Braxton (2), Brooke (3), Cabell (52), Clay (2), Fayette (36), Gilmer (8), Grant (6), Greenbrier (8), Hampshire (10), Hancock (12), Hardy (23), Harrison (34), Jackson (136), Jefferson (92), Kanawha (188), Lewis (4), Lincoln (5), Logan (14), Marion (46), Marshall (23), Mason (14), McDowell (6), Mercer (12), Mineral (26), Mingo (3), Monongalia (114), Monroe (6), Morgan (17), Nicholas (8), Ohio (37), Pendleton (5), Pleasants (2), Pocahontas (2), Preston (14), Putnam (29), Raleigh (10), Randolph (5), Ritchie (1), Roane (8), Summers (1), Taylor (8), Tucker (4), Tyler (3), Upshur (6), Wayne (93), Wetzel (6), Wirt (3), Wood (44), Wyoming (1).