Howard Gamble

WHEELING – Historically low numbers of COVID-19 cases are being reported over the last week, as low as they were at the beginning of the pandemic, though health officials think the true number may be somewhat higher.

Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said Friday that the reported cases were as low as they had been at the beginning of last fall – though even then, the knowledge that the delta variant was gaining traction Europe kept the local health community on its toes. Ohio County has reported COVID cases in the low-to-mid teens, while Marshall County had been down to single digits until a small spike returned cases to around 20 since Tuesday.

Gamble said the current COVID climate more closely resembles the beginning stages of the pandemic, when the virus was less well-understood.

“Volume-wise or busy-wise, the last time we had a break of any time, … to be this low was back at the beginning of the pandemic,” Gamble said.

However, Gamble said the true number of COVID cases locally is likely higher than is being reported due to the abundance of home testing. Calls come to the health department, he said, seeking guidance after a close contact had tested positive on a home test, which is not included in state reports.

“We have some testing still in place, including our testing sites and others like MedExpress, but you also have a growth of home tests. Although we’re seeing some positives, very few, from our testing sites, … we are getting a number of individuals calling in saying, ‘Someone tested positive, I was in contact, what do I do?'” Gamble said. “Usually these are the results of home tests, and they’re not reportable.

“Whatever we’re seeing right now, with the growth of home tests, you can consider the cases that are out there to be considerably higher,” he continued. “If we have the convenience of home tests, hoping people are screening correctly and correctly quarantining, we’re doing better.”

Gamble was wary at the number of large events, both social, such as Easter, and non-social, such as school functions, church functions and sports events, which can serve as vectors for the spread of COVID even with a low official count of reported cases.

“It’s not going away, it doesn’t hibernate a while and come out as it gets warmer, etc. It’s just a matter of, if you have individuals who are positive, we’re going to pass this,” he said.

Gamble was optimistic, though, that the presence of the COVID vaccines and boosters are doing their job to not only reduce the spread of COVID, but also the more serious effects such as hospitalizations, which he said were very low at this time.

“Although the hospitals are seeing COVID patients, we can still assume a lot of these are individuals not vaccinated, not vaccinated (fully), but we’re not seeing or hearing from hospital systems in our region that they are under tremendous pressure because of an influx,” he said.

Gamble cautioned that, statewide, COVID-linked deaths are still being reported, as well as other deaths connected to, but not directly caused by, COVID as well.

“It’s still a very relevant disease, it’s still current, it’s still concerning. The need for vaccination is still there.”

Looking ahead, Gamble said the health community was not currently anticipating a new variant to break through the current low number of cases, as in previous lulls in the pandemic. The omicron BA.2 subvariant reported earlier this year is likely the prevalent strain of the virus locally, Gamble said, and no impending variant is currently considered to be looming.

“The only one that we know is most prevalent is BA.2, which is the subset of omicron. We should assume that all positives are that subset, but we don’t see anything that’s gotten attention or been passed to us by the state heath department or the news sources that we use. (We are not) seeing something in Europe, the African continent, Asia, or even South America that we should be concerned with – so that’s good news.

“We’re going into spring, we’re going into good times with things going on. It’s getting warmer, there’s graduations, Mother’s Day, some things we’re looking forward to as we’re getting back to normal,” he continued. “However, we still have to remember, we still have a pandemic going on all around us. … It’s still all around us, though in the United States and the greater Ohio Valley, we’re doing a whole lot better, though we’re still not done with the pandemic.”

COVID testing continues at the Ohio County Health Department on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and walk-in vaccine appointments are available from Monday to Friday. Vaccines are available at the Marshall County Health Department from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Monday to Friday.