HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Residents were being warned about wide coronavirus spread in Cabell County heading into the first weekend in October.
“It’s easy to be exposed to it,” said Dr. Michael Kilkenny, physician director for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, of current COVID-19 levels in Huntington, Barboursville and throughout Cabell County.
“We are having more problems with agencies being able to fully staff themselves because of either illness or quarantine.”
Dr. Kilkenny talked with MetroNews a day after the Cabell-Huntington Health Department issued an alert to residents about the increasing new COVID-19 cases.
“Upon review, these cases are primarily related to community spread and are not associated with any one institution, outbreak or event,” the alert read.
On the Friday County Alert System Map from the state Department of Health and Human Resources, tracking coronavirus spread at county levels, Cabell County remained green for what was defined as “minimal” coronavirus transmission.
The color designation was based on percent positivity, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 out of the total number tested, which was 2.37 percent.
The warning from the Cabell-Huntington Health Department was prompted by a second measure, the seven-day rolling average of new cases.
For Cabell County, that average remained above 16 daily per 100,000 people, a larger number that in mid-September.
“When we get the increased numbers of cases, we see that the primary intervention that’s in place right now, which is good contact tracing, that seems to lose its effectiveness,” Dr. Kilkenny said.
Because of that, Kilkenny said additional individual preventative steps, like mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, were necessary.
Other recommendations from the Cabell-Huntington Health Department included the following:
– Each person should consider their available lifestyle options that reduce potential contact and exposure to the virus, including increasing the use of pickup, takeout, or delivery services and decreasing in-person visits.
– Persons at high risk for severe or complicated COVID-19 disease should stay at home as much as is possible.
– Each person should provide emotional support and encouragement to neighbors, friends, and family during these challenging times.
– Each person with the option to study or work remotely should consider doing so. Any meeting or gathering that can be should be shared on a virtual platform rather than in-person.
– Each person should consider the risk to their family members in decisions about gathering, even for family events.
– Each person with symptoms of COVID-19 or who has been in contact with a person ill with COVID-19 should be tested as advised by their health care provider or health department.
Before now, “We’ve done really well in Cabell County and we think we can plateau this or even reduce it. We need everybody’s help,” Dr. Kilkenny said.
Free coronavirus testing is available every Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, 703 Seventh Avenue, Huntington.
For available community testing sites elsewhere in West Virginia, CLICK HERE.