FAIRMONT, W.Va. – Administrator of the Marion County Health Department, Lloyd White has confirmed the third confirmed case of COVID-19 there.
“I can tell you they are hospitalized at this point,”White said,”Bit, in terms of what heir condition is I really can’t say with any specificity.”
White says they are conducting contact tracing to notify others who could be infected.
“We have all hands on deck, folks that usually don’t work epidemiology are working working epidemiology to do the contact tracing,”White said.
“We make contact with the contacts and advise them if it is close contact, do the voluntary isolation/quarantine for 14 days and monitor their symptoms,”White said,”See if they become symptomatic, then if they don’t after 14 days they are no longer communicable.”
White says no longer having the community has been an issue during the crisis.
“I don’t know if our lab at the hospital could have been able to do any kind of analysis,”White said,”But, they could have assisted, at the very least with testing, specimen collection and submittal for analysis, it would have been a huge asset to our community as we continue to fight this COVID-19.”
Unlike some communities, Marion County has a supply of personal protective equipment, for now.
“We’ve been taking some funds, along with the county commission, Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in order to have a stockpile that one day we would hopefully not need it, but if we need it we would have it”White said,”As of right now with what we have and the little bit we’re getting we seem to be pretty good, but that could change tomorrow if this thing explodes.”
White encourages residents to practice social distancing, isolation and if you have symptoms it’s best to assume you have COVID-19, quarantine to limit the spread.