Gamble: Post-Holiday COVID Spike Is No Surprise
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WHEELING -- The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 over the last week, part of an expected sharp increase after the holiday season, and with another increase to come later in the week.
A total of 502 new cases were reported between Dec. 26 and Sunday, according to Health Administrator Howard Gamble. More cases are expected to come in later this week as a result of New Year's celebrations, with positives expecting to rise again by around Thursday.
Gamble said the county hadn't seen this many new cases since around this time last year, when vaccines started becoming more publicly available.
However, Gamble said the county was fortunate that despite the high number of new cases, only one fatality related to COVID was reported in that same time frame.
"This volume coming in, we didn't see this (since) almost a year ago, when we had volumes of this magnitude, because we had so many cases going on," he said. "We haven't experienced this for quite some time. ... The good news is, of the 500-plus cases, we've only had one death. It's a sign that if we're vaccinated, it's going to give protection beyond just catching (COVID). It's going to have protection for long-term health issues.
"… Typically after holidays, this is what we see. We have a holiday event, we have an increase in cases. Christmas, we saw that increase. Now with New Year's, we'll see that increase as well, probably not until Wednesday or Thursday. It may not be as big, but we will see an increase after a holiday event."
Gamble was quick to point out that even the large number of positives only indicates those who had gotten tested, with others likely isolating themselves after testing at home, or who simply self-isolate when feeling unwell without getting tested.
"On the other side, 500-plus cases, and that's just from reported, positive cases. There is an abundance of home testing available, and there's also cases that don't get reported, because Joe Schmo just says, 'I'm not going to get tested, I'll just stay home and isolate for the time being.'"
Gamble said that while Ohio County has not yet reported any cases of the omicron variant, the more contagious, likely less lethal variant is almost certainly already spreading throughout the county.
"Some of it may be, but we haven't detected it in this county yet," he said. "It's been detected in other counties, but not in Ohio yet. The majority are probably delta, a small amount are probably omicron. It's naturally occurring, identified in Marshall County. Is it occurring here? Absolutely. It just hasn't been identified in the sequence testing."
One other area of concern, Gamble said, was with people waiting until they have been symptomatic for several days before getting tested. In the meantime, those people are still out in public.
"It's good that people are getting tested. ... However, of concern is how late some people are testing. … We really need people to test as soon as they show symptoms, so we can get them into isolation."