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WHEELING -- Long-term health care facilities in four Northern Panhandle counties are experiencing active COVID-19 outbreaks.
Elsewhere, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on Monday also reported three COVID-related deaths: a 79-year old male and 90-year-old female from Kanawha County, and an 84-year old female from Boone County.
According to DHHR statistics, active COVID-19 cases were reported at Wheeling Continuous Care Center and Peterson Healthcare and Rehab Center in Ohio County; at Weirton Geriatric Center in Hancock County; at Mound View Health Care Center in Marshall County; at Sistersville Center in Tyler County; and at the New Martinsville Center in Wetzel County.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble also confirmed the positive outbreaks at the Ohio County facilities, noting that each facility affected has specific guidelines in place when such an outbreak occurs.
"At Peterson and Continuous Care, both have cases continuing to come in from patients or staff. They all have to do certain things when they experience an outbreak," Gamble said.
As of Monday the positive COVID cases included:
* Four residents and nine staff members at Wheeling Continuous Care Center;
* One resident and five staff members at Weirton Geriatric Center;
* No residents and two staff members at Mound View Health;
* No residents and one staff member at Sistersville Center;
* One resident and two staff members at New Martinsville Center.
Gamble noted control measures must be undertaken including limiting visitors and transfers of patients, and all staff and patients must be tested every week until they are all clear. Gamble said most patients in these facilities are not going in and out like the staff and visitors do on a daily basis.
"In our nursing facilities, patients are in a small bubble unless they come in positive. The virus can come in with the staff, everyone from administrators to nursing -- those who have the ability to leave every day and come back. Typically there are more staff sick than patients. It just takes one case to spread from floor to floor," Gamble commented.
He noted after July 4, there was a sizable spike in the number of virus cases because of people traveling and going out and socializing. Gamble also noted that while there are positive cases, some report only mild symptoms.
Typically, patients in nursing facilities are medically more susceptible to catching the virus, Gamble said. Other conditions such as having a hearing loss where the staffers have to get close to patients to talk to them can have a negative result as well.
Gamble said COVID statistics he reports and those reported by the state often differ for several reasons.
"I get reports faster than the state, always," he said. "The state sometimes gets cases and gives them to us. We then have to track them down and sometimes they end up not being ours and it takes time to reverse it back."
For instance, over the weekend, Gamble said he was given two cases from the state that turned out to be Ohio residents so they were not part of Ohio County's numbers. Some cases sent to Ohio County are for residents with dual addresses in border counties. That also can skew the figures.
Also, the state often reports numbers for Peterson Healthcare and Rehab Center under two names including Guardian Elder Care.
The W.Va. DHHR reported Monday that there have been 638,821 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 18,281 total cases and 385 deaths.
The number of cases in the Northern Panhandle include: 137 in Brooke County; 173 in Hancock County; 206 in Marshall County; 415 in Ohio County; 22 in Tyler County; and 69 in Wetzel County.
For a complete listing, visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov.