CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — There are plenty of reasons West Virginia, as of Saturday afternoon, was the only state in the country with no confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

It is a small state and mostly rural, much of its population already socially distanced by hollows and mountains. It is a state, as the West Virginia health secretary said at a news conference on Friday, that doesn’t “have a lot of international travel.”

Still, at that same news conference, Gov. Jim Justice was bluntly realistic.

“We know it’s here,” he said. “I mean, let’s be real. It has to be here. We just haven’t found it yet.”