New Omicron Subvariant Found in Ohio County | News, Sports, Jobs

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)

CHARLESTON — State officials announced Friday that a subvariant of the COVID-19 virus’ omicron variant has been found in West Virginia, specifically in Ohio and Berkeley counties. Meanwhile, Gov. Jim Justice said federal government officials told him and the governors of Virginia and Tennessee that it would consider a waiver for rural hospitals for the COVID vaccine mandate.

West Virginia’s coronavirus “czar” Dr. Clay Marsh, said the Mountain State joins about half the states in the country in finding cases of the new subvariant, omicron BA.2

It has been nicknamed a “stealth” variant, Marsh said.

“It’s not because it’s any worse than the original omicron, but because it has different properties when you use genetic tests to identify it,” he said. “But what is clear, in some countries, this variant has become the dominant variant and has out-competed the first variant, BA.1.”

Marsh said state officials will continue to watch the BA.2 subvariant carefully, saying it doesn’t seem any more severe than the original variant.

“(T)he immunity that we’ve gained in West Virginia from vaccines, and, we hope, more boosters, along with people that have been infected and recovered from omicron recently, should provide us the necessary immune protection so that BA.2 does not spread widely,” he said.

On the vaccination front, Justice was hopeful after a phone conversation he, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee had with officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The three states had requested a waiver for rural hospitals with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, concerned that the mandate would lead enough healthcare workers to quit, leaving those hospitals critically short-staffed.

“We shared a lot of our concerns,” Justice said. “They said they would absolutely take these words back to their people for serious consideration for some type of waiver.”

Justice said the CMS officials told the governors they would be in touch.

“I hope it’s not just lip service,” Justice said. “I hope we’ll have some good news for our rural hospitals, because the last thing on earth that we can have happen to our people in rural West Virginia is lose our hospitals. So we’re pushing it, and we’re pushing it as hard as we can.”

“(W)hat they very well can do is extend the timelines and work with us on the percentage of folks who are vaccinated at the hospitals,” Justice added, “and give us leeway to where we don’t have to end to terminate someone we desperately need in a rural hospital.”

The number of active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia have dropped to levels not seen since the end of last year, but hospitalizations remain above delta peak levels.

According to data from the state Department of Health and Human Resources, active COVID-19 cases — caused by the spread of the more contagious but milder omicron variant — dropped from a peak of 21,039 on Jan. 15 three weeks ago to 11,116 active cases as of Thursday — a 47% drop in active cases.

The total number of active cases during the omicron surge never reached the 29,744 delta variant peak in September 2021 which also exceeded the 29,257 active cases during the first COVID-19 wave in January 2021. According to the County Alert System color-coded map, only 16 out of 55 counties are in the red for either high infection rates or high percent of positivity.

Marsh said the overall rate of infection in West Virginia has fallen below 1, meaning that the chances of one person infecting another person with COVID-19 has reduced.

“It looks like we’ve seen the peak of the omicron cases. Now we believe that is starting to recede,” Marsh said. “We see that the Rt values remain under 1. Today’s is .94, and the number of average daily cases has gone down over the last four or five days as well as the percent positive has gone down.”

However, hospitalizations during the omicron surge remain higher than the first delta surge or the first COVID-19 surge at the beginning of 2021. Total hospitalizations in West Virginia for COVID-19 infections were 1,061 as of Thursday, down from a record 1,097 hospitalizations Wednesday.

The Wednesday hospitalization peak was 8% more than the 1,012-patient hospitalization record during the September delta surge and 34% higher than the 818-patient hospitalization record during the first surge back in January 2021. According to inpatient bed utilization data compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 86.5% of the state’s inpatient hospital beds are in use, with 1,242 beds – 22.2% of inpatient beds – are in use for COVID-19 patients with 59 hospitals reporting to HHS.

Despite the spike of hospitalizations, serious COVID-19 infections requiring the use of intensive care unit beds has increased, but hasn’t spiked. DHHR reported Friday a total of 233 ICU cases, which is 21% below the September ICU bed peak of 296 beds, though it is still 6% more than the 219 ICU cases during the January 2021 COVID-19 surge. HHS reports that 83.7% of the state’s ICU beds are in use, with 224 beds — 37.5% of ICU beds in West Virginia — are being used for COVID-19 patients.

“We would anticipate hospital numbers will be the next focus for us,” Marsh said. “In general, we have seen hospitalization numbers continue to rise after the peak of cases in other countries. Also, we know after that follows increased numbers of people who die from COVID-19.”

Justice said Friday that more than 290 members of the West Virginia National Guard are assisting 34 different hospitals and medical facilities with manpower due to the strain of the increased COVID hospitalizations combined with staffing shortages.

Managing Editor Derek Redd contributed to this report.