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MOUNDSVILLE -- Breaching an 8 percent positivity rate reported Friday morning, Marshall County tipped over into the red on the COVID-19 map, forcing the closure of schools through next week.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' COVID-19 map reported that Marshall County reached an 8.01 percent positivity, along with a 72.99 infection rate, with both indicators firmly in the red. The rise in both metrics was a jump from the previous day, which recorded an infection rate of 58.49 and 6.44 percent positivity, a sharp increase for both figures that had been steadily increasing by smaller amounts each day.
In response, Marshall County Schools announced at 1 p.m. Friday that students will spend the next week on remote learning, shifting away from a four-day-a-week in-person instruction schedule.
Two cases had been reported in schools, one each at Center McMechen Elementary and Glen Dale Elementary, over the last week. Each of those was determined to come from community spread, not from spread at the schools.
Students were scheduled Friday to return to in-person instruction on Nov. 16. Should the community spread continue to increase, the return date will be moved. The shift to remote learning means all non-essential school events, such as a veterans appreciation drive-through event scheduled for Wednesday, have been canceled. Essential services, such as meal service and special education programs, will continue.
Marshall County reported 35 cases among residents at the Cameron Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as of Friday morning, with another 12 cases among staff members. Three staff at Mound View are also positive.
Ohio County remained orange on the DHHR map through Friday, though numerous cases continued to be reported.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said there were hotspots of new cases cropping up across the county that have not been officially designated as outbreaks, including Oglebay Park and an unspecified childcare center.
"We have cases at a lot of venues, Oglebay may be one of those, but we haven't declared any outbreaks," Gamble said. "People assume you have one case, and a lot of people are sick, but one or two cases may not connect to an outbreak, where the county doesn't have the time to justify calling it an outbreak. ... Facilities all across Ohio County and Marshall, there are cases within them. It doesn't automatically mean it's an outbreak."
Gamble said it's becoming quite difficult to get straight answers from people who test positive regarding who they were in contact with or where they had been, which complicates contact tracing procedures.
"It's not like you're snitching on the mob, but we do need to know some details so we can try to stop the cases," he said. "… The challenging part is getting contact with these individuals to say, 'Yes, we have a case, here are the contacts.' Sometimes people don't want to give information, they don't want to divulge something because they're afraid, or they're going off what someone else told them."
He added that if more people regularly took advantage of the free testing offered throughout the county, they could be alerted to their positive status sooner and take steps to avoid spreading the disease.