COVID-19 Metrics Rising in Ohio County | News, Sports, Jobs

WHEELING — The metrics for the spread of COVID-19 in Ohio County have taken a recent turn for the worse, with Ohio County now gold on the state color-coded chart.

Ohio County, like its Northern Panhandle neighbors, was designated green, the safest category on the Department of Health and Human Resources map, this time last week. However, between last Thursday and Friday, infection rate nearly doubled from 7.24 to 13.80 cases per 100,000 residents overnight, while percent positivity rose from 1.11 to 2.35; because the chart reflects the lesser of two values, Ohio County remained green.

Both metrics continued to increase over the course of the week, shifting Ohio County to yellow on Sunday and to gold on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, the percent positivity inched within sight of orange, at 4.84, just shy of the 5 needed to go orange.

Wheeling-Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said the recent cases were linked to spread among families, with new cases mostly being transmitted among households.

“I don’t have a lot of cases coming from nursing facilities and hospitals, but from workplaces, or from the family,” Gamble said. “We’re going places, doing things, and coming home, where it spreads very quickly. They’re younger; these are people who are a little more mobile — work, family, events, people getting out and doing things.”

Gamble said that in previous outbreaks, those affected tended to be older individuals or those within group homes, which spread quickly between one another. Now, he said, the increasingly active population is interacting more with one another and facilitating the spread between each other, and then taking it back home.

“It’s picked up a little quicker because the population is a little more mobile,” he said. “We’re going to work, we’re going to school, we’re bringing it back, and where we have one in a household, very quickly it goes to four.”

Gamble advised people to stay cautious when going out in social settings, again stressing mask-wearing and hand washing.

The increased spread, Gamble said, was concerning from the county health perspective, as many places across the country are starting to reopen, which itself increases the ability for COVID to spread between regions.

Gamble’s concern was that a new rise in COVID cases would require reallocating resources away from vaccination efforts provided by the county, Wheeling Hospital and Wheeling Health Right.

“When you see an increase in cases, we have to then switch staff to assist with the increase, because we still have to follow those,” Gamble said. “It takes away from some of the efforts we’re doing trying to get people vaccinated.”

Vaccination clinics continue each weekday at the county center at The Highlands by appointment. Appointments can be made at www.wheelinghospital.org; Gamble said many doses are still available and ready for distribution.

Gamble added that as spring approaches — April snowfall notwithstanding — many people may attribute sickness to hayfever and allergies, rather than to COVID. While many cases will certainly be seasonal allergies, Gamble stressed that people who suspect they may be sick come and get tested as a precaution.

“This is the season where we typically say, ‘I have my allergies coming back,’” he said. “Granted, they do. But if you have symptoms of any kind, get tested. You may have COVID and we don’t want you spreading it to your workplace or school. Really, you should be quarantined and isolated. … We highly encourage it, even during the allergy season.”