Trending
ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Every county in Ohio has a high incidence of coronavirus spread, according to Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul.
He heard the news from state officials Thursday, along with reports of an increasing caseload across Belmont County.
Jefferson County shifted to Level 3, or red, on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System's color-coded map, which is updated weekly on Thursdays. Belmont and Harrison counties remained at Level 2, or orange. Monroe County is at Level 1, or yellow — one of only two counties in the state still in that lowest-risk category, along with Morgan County. Nearby Noble County changed from yellow to orange.
The fourth, and most serious, color designation is purple for Level 4. So far, none of Ohio's 88 counties has fallen into that category.
COVID-19 cases continue to climb locally, with Belmont County now at a total of 1,092 since the onset of the pandemic. Active cases isolated at home spiked to 308 Thursday after crossing the 200 threshold earlier this week. Sproul said more than 350 additional people are considered close contacts of infected individuals and are in quarantine, though they have not tested positive so far.
There have been 752 recoveries in Belmont County. Seven residents are hospitalized, and 25 people have died after being infected with coronavirus, including nine inmates at Belmont Correctional Institute.
Area schools are being impacted by the illness. St. Clairsville-Richland City Schools District switched to remote learning through today after three cases were confirmed in the district earlier this week - one student at the elementary school and two high school students. Deep cleaning of the buildings has been completed and contact tracing continues.
Sproul said East Richland Christian School west of St. Clairsville also switched to remote learning. Officials with that private school could not be reached for comment Thursday.
An outbreak in the Buckeye Local School District has its buildings closed until Nov. 16. District leaders have asked all students and staff to self-quarantine.
Martins Ferry City School District has shifted to remote learning through Nov. 13 due to infections identified there.
Union Local School District sent an advisory to families that four high school students are quarantined for coronavirus exposure and one is being tested. At the middle school, seven students are quarantined for exposure to the virus, and five elementary school students are quarantined as well. One individual at the elementary school is being tested, and three staff at the elementary school have been quarantined as contacts of infected individuals.
On Thursday, two additional people associated with the school district were quarantined.
"All the exposures that we've had have not been school-related. All the people that are quarantined are quarantined due to exposure to someone outside of the school district," UL Superintendent Ben Porter said.
As of Thursday, there were no plans for Union Local to switch to remote learning, but Porter said this was subject to change.
"It is a day-by-day decision right now. We monitor every day what comes in, in terms of quarantines and individuals being tested, and obviously if there's a positive case, that would impact things," he said. "We have had two staff positive, and we've been able to contact-trace pretty easily in those situations."
Porter said there have been no positive student cases up to this point, and all options are "on the table" as to how to educate students. Porter said while personal instruction is the best, safety will take priority.
Sproul has said neglecting to take precautions and unofficial gatherings are the chief sources of community spread.