File Photo by Derek Redd Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department employees inform those waiting in line along Eoff Street for a COVID-19 test at the old OVMC campus in January that the line was being cut off due to the testing site closing soon.

WHEELING — A line of cars wrapped around the Ohio Valley Medical Center and extending for more than two blocks down Eoff Street at the COVID-19 testing line Monday.

Hundreds of cars waited in the snow as testing was slowly conducted the Monday after the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department announced more than 700 new cases over the previous week. Some of those waiting in line said they were required to get a test from their workplace, and that all testing sites proved busy.

After the day’s work at the testing site, health department Administrator Howard Gamble described it as “a normal day,” with the start of a week – and a new school semester – seeing many people come by to provide a negative test needed for work, school, or travel.

However, the biggest draw to the testing line, Gamble said, was simply that people were sick.

“Today was a normal day – Monday, Tuesday, we usually have an increase because people are coming back from a weekend, and they, or their employer, want them to get tested,” Gamble said. “It’s also the end of a long holiday for a lot of college kids, and because the university or college says they need to have it.

“Above all, we had a lot of people in line who were symptomatic. It’s just part of the nature that they were getting tested, because they were sick.”

Due to the length of the wait, some prospective patients had to be turned away so the site could close at 3:30 p.m. Many others, after waiting in the line, simply drove off rather than wait in the cold. Gamble said the wait times likely discouraged testing.

Jeanette Ziegler, one of the people waiting in line Monday, wasn’t sick, but she needed the negative COVID test to return to West Virginia Northern Community College campus. The McMechen resident saw at least 10 cars pull out of line during her wait, which started at around 11:30 a.m. Monday. By about 2:30 p.m. she was a few cars away from turning onto the former OVMC campus. The line was cut off for the day just a few cars behind her.

“I have a 3-year-old back here (in the car), so it’s been exhausting … and loud,” Ziegler said with a chuckle. “But because it’s required, we have to sit here and do this.

“Now, I think there’s so much precaution and so many places require a (negative) COVID test, I think that’s why the lines right now are so busy,” she added.

Roxby Labs typically sends assistance in conducting testing, with additional workers on hand to process patients. An outbreak of COVID among Roxby employees, Gamble said, left them shorthanded and unable to help as usual. A nationwide shortage of home testing kits, he added, is complicating the problem, as vaccinated and asymptomatic individuals could free up the testing sites for the sick.

“Several staff at Roxby came down with COVID, and it shortened up their workforce too, so today was a difficult day, where we had to turn some people away who were in line for quite some time…

“Free testing sites, when they get too long, people will give up. … We hate for that to happen. The problem we’re running into is the lack of home testing kits. It would be great to be able to swab real quick and know you can go back to work, … and leave the testing sites to confirm a real positive in someone who’s symptomatic. It’s unfortunate, and I think we’re just trying to catch up, as a country, to having these tests available.”

Gamble said that in addition to insurance-covered and paid testing sites such as MedExpress and the various rapid care centers, free testing is also provided at Wheeling Health Right, on 29th Street, and at Moundsville Pharmacy. Local drugstores and pharmacies, too, can offer tests and doses of vaccine.

A lack of staff, Gamble said, is the primary limiting factor with the possibility of introducing new testing sites to take pressure off OVMC. Older sites at Valley Grove, Warwood and Wheeling Island were closed down early last year due to lack of demand.

“When we looked at the site, it’s a very convenient site with lots of space, and other venues are up, other counties health departments, other paid sites, and so on. Each time we think, ‘Let’s open something back up,’ we have to remind ourselves that there are lots of testing opportunities in the valley, some may just not be convenient for people.

“I don’t have any plans (to open a new testing site), because if I’m being honest, to open a testing site, I need staff. I just don’t have enough staff to throw into a testing site without pulling them out of the vaccine center or reducing the number of people at the current testing site.”

Gamble added that the vaccine center at The Highlands remains open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

Managing Editor Derek Redd contributed to this report.