WHEELING, W. Va.- (WTRF) For the last five weeks there has been a steady stream of positive COVID-19 cases in Ohio County.
Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble says positive cases began to escalate even before school started, but in recent weeks there has really been a surge.
Gamble says the health department is seeing 20 to 25 new cases a day.
He says last week alone there were 150 new cases in total and 50 of those were in children under 18.
Gamble says, “Very few of those were vaccinated children that were positive. So, of those 50, very few were vaccinated. Most of them will have extremely mild symptoms. The problem you run into is that child then can pass it to the next person and that’s what we see cases erupting within a household and so you see moms, grandparents, aunts and uncles get it and it moves very quickly.”
According to Gamble, hospitals are seeing mostly unvaccinated people with COVID, but there are some instances where vaccinated people are coming in and being treated for the illness.
The concern is that cases are still trending up, although 60 to 65% of Ohio County residents have been vaccinated.
Gamble, who encourages everyone to get vaccinated, says the percentage of vaccinated people needs to reach about 85% before cases can decrease overall.
