December 17th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

According to health department administrator A. jay Root, Mineral County will begin vaccinating its frontline health care workers against COVID-19 on Friday. In a Wednesday evening email, Root said the initial round of vaccinations  "will focus on EMS, health department personnel and volunteers."  The county has an initial round of 46 doses, Root said, not including what hospitals and nursing homes will receive. With help from the county's student nurses, he said, Root anticipates being able to vaccinate everyone within the three-week timeframe Gov. Jim Justice mentioned during Wednesday's press conference. The second round of vaccinations will be concentrated on inoculating "additional EMS staff, law enforcement, fire departments and OEM/911 workers," Root wrote.

As of Thursday morning, the county's infection rate was 99.96 per 100,000 and its percent positivity 10.73%. To date, 1,789 county residents have contracted COVID-19 and 52 have died.