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A little more than a third of the Ohio Valley's total COVID-19 positive cases have popped up since the start of December, with that surge expected to continue through the holiday season.
COVID-related deaths were on the rise again as well in Marshall County, with two more reported Tuesday night.
COVID-19 positive cases have jumped around the Ohio Valley for another month. Nearly 5,000 new cases have been reported in a 10-county region across West Virginia and Ohio since Dec. 1. In two instances, county COVID positives have more than doubled since the start of the month.
In the 10 counties of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler in West Virginia and Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison and Monroe in Ohio, 4,885 new cases have been reported since Dec. 1. There are a total of 14,753 cases in those 10 counties. The new cases in December make up 33.1 percent of that total.
In Hancock and Wetzel counties, cases have more than doubled. Wetzel went from 141 cases to 290 since Dec. 1, a surge of 149 new cases. Hancock County went from 753 to 1,609 cases, an increase of 856 since the start of the month.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble said health officials had anticipated a longer surge of the virus. That surge will continue until there is some sort of intervention, be it pharmaceutical or some sort of community limitation like drastically cutting down populations in stores and restaurants.
"We know ... for a vaccine to make an impact will be a while," he said. "So we anticipate a longer surge of an increase in cases than we have in the past, because we're not in the position right now to be extremely restrictive."
As the holidays arrive and people choose to visit friends and relatives, Gamble reminds everyone that, just because they don't feel sick at the time doesn't mean that they aren't COVID positive — and doesn't mean they aren't contagious.
"When we feel fine going somewhere, we don't know that in a couple of days, we'll have spiked a fever," he said. "We have to remember that we were infectious, at some points, for days prior."
COVID-related deaths are spiking as well. Of the 1,171 deaths in West Virginia since the pandemic began, 413 have come in December. In Ohio, 1,056 of the state's 8,252 deaths have come in December.
The two deaths the Marshall County Health Department reported Tuesday night were a 61-year-old woman and 67-year-old man, both of whom were hospitalized at the time of their passing. The county also reported five new confirmed positive and four probable cases, bringing Marshall's totals to 1,541 confirmed cases and 270 probable cases, six hospitalizations and 45 associated deaths.
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported 24 new cases, bringing Ohio County's totals to 2,423 positive cases and 37 related deaths.
All four Northern Panhandle Counties remained in "red" on the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources daily COVID-19 alert map.