CHARLESTON, W.Va.
(AP) — A West Virginia judge in the county with the state’s highest
coronavirus caseload has approved strapping ankle monitors to people who
test positive but refuse to quarantine, officials said Monday.

The
order allows Kanawha County sheriffs to use the GPS bracelets after a
county commissioner said “a few” people with the virus ignored isolation
orders.

“We do not want to use the GPS ankle bracelets to enforce the quarantines, however, if we must we will. This must be taken seriously,” said Kent Carper, president of the Kanawha County Commission.

The
ruling comes after judges in Kentucky put ankle monitors on at least
three people who have flouted quarantine orders after testing positive.

Kanawha
County, where the state Capitol is located, was included in a set of
executive orders last week from Republican Gov. Jim Justice that
tightened existing virus restrictions in six counties that make up 60%
of the state’s positive cases.

The
orders in Berkeley, Jefferson, Morgan, Harrison, Monongalia and Kanawha
counties limit gatherings to no more than five people, urge businesses
to have employees work from home and direct local health departments to
establish maximum occupancy rules for stores. State police will help
enforce the county rules.

The
move intensified previous orders from Justice, who has issued a
statewide stay-home order, directed nonessential businesses to close and
shuttered schools until at least April 30. The governor has also pushed
back the primary election from May 12 to June 9 over fears about the
virus spreading at polling places.

At least 345 people statewide have the virus after 9,940 tests, health officials said Monday. Kanawha County has the state’s highest number of cases with at least 56 positives.

The state reported its fourth virus death on Monday, an 85-year-old Harrison County man with underlying health conditions, according to a health department spokeswoman. Officials have previously said the first three victims were an 88-year-old Marion County woman, a Jackson County resident with several underlying health issues and a 76-year-old man linked to the Sundale nursing home in Morgantown, a particularly hard-hit facility where at least 29 people have tested positive.

Virus
testing remains limited, meaning most people now spreading the highly
contagious virus may not know they have been infected, and state health
officials have admitted their count lags behind the actual total as
results pour in from counties around the state.

For
most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such
as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks, and the
overwhelming majority of people recover. But severe cases can need
respirators to survive, and with infections spreading exponentially,
hospitals across the country are either bracing for a coming wave of
patients, or already struggling to keep up.

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