From STAFF REPORTS
The Marshall County Health Department reported another COVID-related death Wednesday night, the 46th in the county since the pandemic began.
Wednesday’s reported death was of an 89-year-old woman who was hospitalized at the time her death. The county also reported seven confirmed new positive cases and seven new probable cases.
That brings Marshall County’s overall totals to 1,548 confirmed cases and 277 probable cases with eight hospitalizations.
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported 26 new cases Wednesday night, bringing Ohio County’s totals to 2,449 positive cases and 37 related deaths.
The Northern Panhandle’s four counties remained in “red” on Wednesday’s West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources COVID-19 alert map. All but seven of West Virginia’s 55 counties were either in “red,’ the map’s highest-risk category, or in “orange,” its second-highest-risk category.
Managing Editor
A little more than a third of the Ohio Valley’s total COVID-19 positive cases have popped up since the start of December, with that surge expected to continue through the holiday season.
COVID-related deaths were on the rise again as well in Marshall County, with two more reported Tuesday night.
COVID-19 positive cases have jumped around the Ohio Valley for another month. Nearly 5,000 new cases have been reported in a 10-county region across West Virginia and Ohio since Dec. 1. In two instances, county COVID positives have more than doubled since the start of the month.
In the 10 counties of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler in West Virginia and Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison and Monroe in Ohio, 4,885 new cases have been reported since Dec. 1. There are a total of 14,753 cases in those 10 counties. The new cases in December make up 33.1 percent of that total.
From STAFF REPORTS
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise locally, Belmont County Jail has taken inmates from Northern Regional Jail in Marshall County who have tested positive for the virus.
Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas confirmed two of the new inmates are positive for COVID-19, but said there is little risk to the rest of the population.
“This happened last week. This was done by court order,” Lucas said.
“They were ordered by the court to be brought over. There were three males and two females, and one male and one female tested positive over there for COVID.”
“All the necessary precautions have been taken. They have been quarantined here and they are segregated (from) other inmates,” Lucas said. “They was on their tail-end of their quarantine. Once they’re cleared by medical, then they’ll be put in general population.”
From STAFF REPORTS
All four Northern Panhandle counties were in “red” on the state’s Sunday COVID alert map. They had plenty of company.
Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties were among 32 “red” counties on the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources map.
Hancock and Brooke were among five counties in the state with an infection rate of at least 100 cases per 100,000 residents. Hancock had an infection rate of 118.51 cases per 100,000 residents and a percent positivity of 16.43.
Brooke had an infection rate of 115.25 and a percent positivity of 16.36.
Ohio County had an infection rate of 79.34 cases per 100,000 and a percent positivity of 11.84, while Marshall County had an infection rate of 61.76 and a percent positivity of 10.95.
Dec 20, 2020
ST. CLAIRSVILLE COVID-19 vaccinations were set to begin this morning for frontline workers at Wheeling Hospital and WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale, a massive step toward curbing the spread of a virus that claimed eight more Belmont County lives over the weekend.
The hospitals’ frontline workers represent the first part of the first phase in West Virginia’s vaccination rollout. They will receive the Pfizer version of the vaccine, which gained federal approval for emergency distribution Friday night.
Wheeling Hospital Assistant Vice President Tony Martinelli said hospital staff traveled to Morgantown on Monday to retrieve the first doses of the vaccine.