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COVID-19 vaccinations will begin Tuesday morning for front-line workers at both Wheeling Hospital and Reynolds Memorial Hospital, a massive step in curbing the spread of a virus that claimed three more lives between Ohio and Marshall counties.
The hospitals' front-line workers represent the first part of the first phase in the state of West Virginia's vaccination rollout. They will receive the Pfizer version of the vaccine, which gained approval for emergency 11.65 distribution Friday night.
Wheeling Hospital Assistant Vice-President Tony Martinelli said hospital staff traveled to Morgantown on Monday to retrieve the first doses of the vaccine.
"Our staff has done a great job combatting this pandemic for the past nine months," he said. "We were extremely excited to begin vaccine rollout in order to keep them protected."
Vaccines at both hospitals will be administered on a voluntary basis. Wheeling Hospital said its shots will be administered on a tier system. Criteria include the amount of direct patient care, units involved, areas with high exposure risk, critical functions to the hospital and groups with risk for staffing shortages. The hospital hopes to have its staff vaccinations completed by mid- to late January.
A release from WVU Hospitals, which owns Reynolds, said it had not yet received any notice of when additional allotments of the vaccine will be available following the first one. The goal is to vaccinate every faculty and staff member and resident who wished to be vaccinated as soon as possible. To qualify for more doses, the hospital must exhaust the initial allotment.
Meanwhile the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported two more COVID-related deaths Monday, and the Marshall County Health Department reported one. In Ohio County, one person was a long-term care resident and another was hospitalized at the time of their deaths. In Marshall County, a 50-year-old hospitalized man died.
That marks 32 COVID deaths in Ohio County and 39 in Marshall County since the pandemic began. Ohio County also reported 38 new positive cases, bringing its total to 2,148. Marshall County also reported 35 new confirmed positive cases and 21 more probable cases, bringing that county's totals to 1,441 confirmed cases, 247 probable cases and 11 hospitalizations.
The Northern Panhandle remained in high-risk categories on the West Virginia Department of Health's daily COVID-19 alert map. Hancock and Brooke counties were in "red," while Ohio and Marshall counties were in "orange." Hancock County had an infection rate of 135.37 cases per 100,000 residents and a percent positivity of 10.49, while Brooke County had an infection rate of 113.30 cases per 100,000 residents and a percent positivity of 11.65.
Ohio County had an infection rate of 63.48 cases per 100,000 residents and a percent positivity of 6.05, while Marshall County had an infection rate of 59.42 cases per 100,000 residents and a percent positivity of 7.21.