WHEELING — When employees of Ohio County businesses contract COVID-19, there are clear protocols for them to follow through the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department — mainly a 14-day quarantine.

Yet it’s not automatic that their workplaces would be forced to totally close their doors.

Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble said that an individual who tests positive follows standard protocols for what to do next — contact tracing, notifying those in direct contact, and quarantining for 14 days.

However, their workplace would not have to take extraordinary measures, such as closing outright if a certain number of employees tested positive, unless there aren’t enough employees left to keep the doors open.

“To close (a business) because of a positive, no, unless they don’t have the staffing to maintain it; that’s a personal choice of the business,” Gamble said. “If they don’t have enough staff to run a business, it’s like schools when they close for snow or disease — they just don’t have enough staff.”

Gamble said, just like with any positive COVID case, the health department goes through where the positive case was located in a business. It looks at who in a business has had direct contact — within 6 feet for 15 minutes, consecutively or cumulatively, or longer. When those direct contacts are found, they are told to quarantine and the health department suggests they get tested.

Those who don’t fit the category of a direct contact can keep working, Gamble said. The business must make sure to wipe down the areas where the COVID positive was found, so others don’t pick up the virus from a stapler or phone and spread it to other areas of the business.

Schools have closed locally due to outbreaks of COVID-19, but Gamble said those closures are because of the number of potential contacts between students and faculty.

“Just like closing for the flu, anytime you have the flu, it’s a joint decision (between the schools and the health department). We tell them, the number of contacts (are excessive) at this point, here’s your options — shutter for 14 days, or close for five, evaluate on the fifth day, see if they need to continue that.”

Gamble said that, at the beginning of the pandemic, a convenience store had an employee test positive for COVID-19. The store decided to close. Gamble said the health department questioned the decision, considering it unnecessary. When businesses decide to close, he said, they need to consider the consequences of that decision, especially the length of time the business must stay closed.

“For a business to close, or for us to say that, you have to remember that disease operates on a 14-day span. If we’re going to close to make an impact on disease, we’re looking at a 14-day closing period, so they don’t open up in a few days, and just have the ability for the disease to continue spreading”

Gamble added that for larger businesses, the concern may be both for the staffers working as well as the customers which may be in contact with one another. He said that the health department does mandate certain restrictions, such as requiring masks and limiting the number of people allowed in at once, to limit exposure between shoppers.

“Three people per thousand square feet, that’s still on the books,” he said. “With those control measures, maybe we won’t see disease spread as quickly. It’s a control — we know we’re going to have disease, but if we can keep it to a manageable level, just like with anything else. For businesses to close, we really need a reason, and if we have one, we need to do it correctly.”