CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — With the national public health emergency from the COVID pandemic set to expire in May, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) is no longer reporting some metrics related to the virus.
Since 2020, the DHHR reported daily COVID numbers including active cases, deaths, new cases and positive percentages. But now, the “current active cases” metric is hidden on the dashboard.
The dashboard says, “Current active cases will no longer be displayed. The metric is no longer used as universal case investigations are no longer recommended in the context of current response.”
The change comes after West Virginia’s COVID State of Emergency ended at the start of 2023, and President Joe Biden announced that the national public health emergency will end on May 11. Many U.S. health officials are already recommending making COVID-19 vaccinations annual, much like flu shots.
An announcement on the page also says:
In line with the federal public health emergency set to expire, DHHR is updating the COVID-19 dashboard metrics to better reflect the current response to the pandemic. Dashboard updates will occur weekly on Wednesdays.
WVDHHR COVID-19 dashboard
This suggests that after almost three years, COVID coverage is finally declining. The last update to the dashboard was made on Friday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m.
