With COVID-19 Cases on the Decline, Is a Better Summer on the Horizon?
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WHEELING -- New cases of COVID-19 in the region are on the decline as more people are inoculated against the coronavirus, and many people are looking ahead at the possibility of living the summer they were denied last year.
Ohio County reports that nearly 5,700 people have been fully vaccinated as of Friday, and nearly 3,300 in Marshall County. With plenty more vaccines planned to come to the county in coming weeks, leading to President Joe Biden's self-imposed deadline of having vaccines fully available by May, it's a common question as to how open the summer of 2021 is going to be.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said there is no way to speculate on a date when it might be truly safe to return to our social ways. The key, he says, is with getting people vaccinated.
"As you increase vaccines, you are seeing individuals not becoming sick — I only reported two cases last night," he said Wednesday. "As you see those cases decreasing, vaccine increasing, there is a link. Vaccine is working, and as a result, we don't see the new cases occurring.
"As vaccine increases — as we now have three, and have multiple availability of vaccines — you'll see the ability for communities, states, counties, and some municipalities ... may make decisions based upon infection rate, positivity rate, and vaccination rate, that it may be safe to do a few more things," he added.
Gamble said the health department had already met with Wheeling officials to discuss the scope of events that the city can host over the summer, some of the smaller ones of which have been given the green light.
"In West Virginia, we moved (gathering limits) up to 100. Restaurants are at full capacity now. Are we going to get to the next stage where we're OK-ing fairs and festivals? We've already met with the city, and discussed their plans for fairs and festivals, such as the outdoor music festival, which, with 100 people gathering, or as they get larger, would be fine.
"It's outdoors, you spread out on the lawn at the parks or at the waterfront," he added. "Some of those, we've told them, go ahead and start planning for."
However, Gamble was hesitant to give the go-ahead for the larger, summer-defining events at this point in time, such as the Italian Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival or concerts.
"What we're going to have to be cautious of is the large gatherings," Gamble said. "… Those are the ones we're going to have to be more cautious. At some point, as vaccines increase and disease rate decreases, the public is going to expect that we need to go back to that level of normalcy. I think we can go back to that level, if we play a few things safe right now.
"That means not just getting vaccinated, but still wearing a mask, washing hands, avoiding large crowds, staying home when you're sick. We've started seeing more of that these days, when people are sick but they're not staying home."
Gamble said isolation time has been reduced since the opening days of the pandemic, and as more people become vaccinated, the number of people who need to quarantine falls at the same rate.
"Quarantine times have changed dramatically — it used to be 14 days, now we have a standard 10-day, and you also can do a five-day option where you quarantine for five days if you're exposed, if you test negative, you can come out," he said. "Quarantine times are going to change. What's going to change even more are quarantine times for fully vaccinated people."
Those fully vaccinated, either having received their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or both doses of Pfizer or Moderna, don't need to quarantine at all if exposed.
"That, really, needs to play into how we get the vaccine out, why we need to get vaccinated, so that we don't have to quarantine an entire organization, business, or entity if we have exposure, and we can continue to function," he added. "Therefore, it's an encouragement that we need to get more people vaccinated."