Here are the most recent statistics on the spread of coronavirus in West Virginia:

The state's handling of the virus was discussed in last night's debate between Governor Jim Justice and his Democratic challenger, Ben Salango. Ogden's political reporter, Steven Allen Adams, described some of it:

Justice defended his handling of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Justice implemented a school reopening plan developed by education and health officials utilizing a color-coded map and metrics that changed multiple times. Justice also defended the tweaks made to the map to allow for more counties to reopen schools. He said the changes made the schools safer and helped spur people to get tested.

Tweaks? (The governor is obviously using a different definition of "tweak.")

The original map was based upon the findings of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Curious, as to the "tweaks" made to the map, I compared the most recent Harvard map to the most recent state map. Here is the Harvard map dated October 12:

And here is the most recent map from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources:

And what about the map used to determine school matters like extracurricular activities and football? That's a weekly map drawn up each Saturday by the WV Department of Education. Here is the most recent map:

By the way, the Harvard Global Health Institute did not approve of the changes. According to Mountain State Spotlight:

Members of the Harvard team that developed the metric said West Virginia was misusing their work.

“That doesn’t follow the public health guidance,” said Dr. Thomas Tsai, a health policy researcher and surgeon at Harvard.

Sorry, Governor, I'm not feeling very confident about this.

Yesterday, the West Virginia GOP retweeted this from our governor:

"West Virginia got it right and continues to get it right ... Governor @JimJusticeWV’s mask mandate has helped lower the numbers" - Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator #WVGov https://t.co/EKkw6Ovs0c

— Governor Jim Justice (@JimJusticeWV) October 13, 2020

If you click on the article, you'll find out that Dr. Deborah Birx said this exactly eight weeks ago. Is this the best support that the Governor and the WV GOP could find for his policies? It certainly looks like it.

Thursday update

Earlier today, the Charleston Gazette-Mail's Phil Kabler tweeted the absurdity of West Virginia's color coding:

Barbour County: Red on Harvard Global map, meaning extreme spread, requiring stay at home orders. Green on https://t.co/0dOtN6WPZG. hyper-tweaked map, meaning virus is contained, all clear.
Which map is correct? https://t.co/HY4zaYw9i6

— Phil Kabler (@PhilKabler) October 15, 2020