ELKINS — With almost 200 new active COVID-19 cases reported in Randolph County during the past two days, the Randolph County Commission is taking new action in the battle against the coronavirus.
Since Monday, there has been an average of close to 100 new active cases per day in Randolph County. The Randolph-Elkins Health Department confirmed on Thursday afternoon that there were currently 450 active COVID-19 cases in the county. That is close to 200 more than the 266 that was reported on Tuesday, and the highest number the county has seen during the pandemic.
Reacting to the skyrocketing numbers, on Thursday the Randolph County Commission opened up a section of the James Cain Courthouse Annex to house a makeshift contact tracing center.
“As a result of how many active cases we currently have in the county, thousands of people need to be contacted through contact tracing,” Randolph County Commission President Mark Scott told The Inter-Mountain. “So what we’ve done is opened up part of the old 911 center and have set it up for volunteers to come in and make some calls.”
Scott said U.S. Cellular in Elkins acted fast upon the county’s request to get the temporary center up and running with phones.
“Those guys came in and really turned this thing around in no time,” Scott noted. “From the time I reached out to them, we had phones in peoples’ hands within an hour and a half. I really want to give a shout out to those guys for their help.”
Randolph Elkins Health Department officials said they are grateful for the help.
“At the end of last week we were still in the 90s for active cases,” Bonnie Woodrum, the department’s infectious disease specialist, told The Inter-Mountain Thursday. “It has been getting worse every day since then, though. Yesterday we were at 358.”
Woodrum said people need to go back to doing the things they were doing a year ago if they want this current surge to slow down.
“Get vaccinated, use your mask, stay out of crowds, and be more vigilant now than you ever have since the start of the pandemic,” she said. “The variant we are dealing with is 1,000 times more contagious, and even those people who are vaccinated need to take precautions. While the vaccine will keep them from getting seriously ill, this variant is so contagious that the vaccinated can still pick it up and spread it to others.”
The Randolph County Health Department is currently setting up appointments for booster doses of the vaccine. These are for people with compromised immune systems who had their second dose at least eight months ago.
Scott added the county commission will continue to do anything it can to help in this current COVID-19 battle.
“We want to do everything we can to keep the public safe,” he said. “When you get 450 confirmed cases, that means there are a lot more out there in the county that are not confirmed. It’s really spreading rapidly and we are keeping our eyes on things from the county standpoint to make sure we are doing everything we need to do to keep folks safe.”
For vaccination appointments, call the Randolph-Elkins Health Department at 304-636-0396.
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