LOGAN, W.Va. — The positive cases of Covid 19 in Logan County took a dramatic jump in a month’s time. In the last days of June, Logan County had around 21 positive cases. As of Thursday, the county had recorded 119 cases and expected the number to jump up even more as test results from a weekend drive-thru clinic are returned.
Logan County Health Department Administrator Steve Browning said they’ve been able to trace most off the increase to two things.
“It was attributed to mostly travel, but shortly after that we had an outbreak at several churches,” he said.
The church outbreak was all tied to a singing group which had performed at four churches in the county. A number of those whose infection was traced to the singing group were from Mingo County and have started to increase the spread in that county as well.
“That’s what kicked this into the gear it’s in. Where we are seeing most of our stuff now is contacts from those positive cases,” he said.
Neighboring Kentucky is not far from Logan and Kentucky is one of the states national health officials have been growing increasingly concerned about as cases numbers rise dramatically. According to Browning they too are concerned in Logan County since a fairly significant number of coal miners who work in Logan County travel there from Kentucky each day, but he says so far there haven’t been any problems in the coal industry.
“We’re trying to monitor and work with the mines themselves to give us early warning if there is something from another state, but we haven’t had too much issue out of that,” he said.
Like most health officials, Browning and his staff have encouraged social distancing, wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, and if at all possible to stay at home.
“We have a small community and everybody knows everybody. When they start feeling this crunch, I’m hoping they’ll take it more seriously and adhere to the guidance the Governor is giving, the C-D-C is giving, and local health departments are giving,” he said.