MOOREFIELD, W.Va. — Over the past six weeks the Potomac Highlands region has seen an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases.
The rates of infection per 100,000 residents in Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Mineral and Morgan counties is above 100 which for counties with populations well below 30,000 has been impacting every aspect of these communities.
Hardy County Health Department Administrator Bill Ours said when it comes to the number of cases and the number of deaths he truly believes the actual numbers are 15 to 20% higher than what is being reported.
“I guarantee you in our community we have 15 to 20% more cases of asymptomatic people and people who just won’t get tested. Because what we are seeing in our community testing is people who pull up to the testing site and say, ‘Well I have a sinus infection or I have allergies because I get them around this time every year,’ and then their tests come back positive because that is a big symptom of COVID,” Ours said. “That’s my estimation and if I was a betting man I wouldn’t be afraid to go higher. Because you still have people who believe the virus is not real, they believe it is a hoax and that is it no more than the common flu. All three of those assumptions are wrong. In my community alone we have lost two great individuals that if it were not for COVID they would still be here and I am pretty sure that there have been more that have been taken by COVID there just haven’t been autopsies done to confirm it.”
Ours said a huge issue is about 40 percent of people are not answering contact tracers.
“It is a huge issue because then we can’t get ahead of it,” Ours said. “When people don’t give us their contact or don’t name them then we cant get that contact quarantined and out of the community possibly being asymptomatic and spreading the virus all over the place.”
Ours said another big issue is that some people are breaking quarantine and not following the guidelines. Regionally outbreaks have been hitting nursing homes and correctional facilities around the region.
“When it gets in there it really gets deadly. We have seen several instances especially in nursing homes to where once the virus gets in there they have a higher death rate than normal. Some of them have extreme death rates to where they see six or eight patients dying,” Ours said.
Some businesses have not been following the guidelines and Ours said those actions are leading to deaths.
“We still have people who absolutely positively refuse to wear a mask and we have establishments that won’t enforce it,” Our said. “Because they don’t want a confrontation with the person. And they had a shut down six months ago and it hit them financially so here at Christmas time they want to make up some of that loss so they are letting people in and it is going to create loss of life that is what people just do not get. Wearing the mask protects me and it protects you from me.”
Ours said everyone can give their struggling home town health officials a Christmas present this year.
“Please take it seriously, please, please, please,” Ours pleaded. “Give me a Christmas present give all health departments, all health care workers, all hospitals a Christmas present and step up for the next 30 days wear your mask, wash your hands, social distance where possible and give us a Christmas present so we can get life back to normal in 2021.”
The surge in COVID-19 cases is expected to continue this week as the cases associated with Thanksgiving travel and get together begin to come in.