Marion Co., West Virginia, sees rise in COVID-19 cases as graduation ceremonies loom

“We’ve had a week where our cases have been pretty much consistent,” White said. “However, they’ve been consistently high. I don’t anticipate any dropoff in cases, at least for another week.”

However, he noted that cases will only go down if people in the county take the pandemic seriously.

“Statewide, we have cases that are high,” White said. “(Marion County) has anywhere between 20 and 40 a day. … With the amount of vaccines that have been administered throughout our county, those with active cases isolating and quarantining close contacts, the three of those should cause us to level out and see a decrease in cases the week after next.”

Marion County Health Department Nursing Director Meagan Payne said that, even though reported case totals are high, the true number of COVID-19 cases in the county is likely even higher.

“We don’t truly know what the active case count is because everyone is doing the at-home tests,” Payne said. “When we are seeing cases, I would say there are more than what we see.”

She said this does not bode well for the county in the coming months, especially with the rise in congregate settings such as fairs, festivals, graduation ceremonies and more, if people don’t hold themselves accountable.

“You have to take responsibility of yourself and get yourself vaccinated,” Payne said. “We all have stewardship over our own actions. That doesn’t just mean vaccination. Do your hand hygiene and social distancing. Wear a mask. All of these things, holistically, including vaccinations, will minimize the chances of you winding up in the hospital on a ventilator, and potentially even dead.”

Marion County’s three high schools will hold their graduation ceremonies this week, and although all are outside and spread out, Superintendent Dr. Donna Hage said that she’s wary of the the school system’s case numbers.

This week, the school system reported 45 new cases of the virus, with pockets of COVID-19 spread throughout schools in the county. She said that as graduation looms, she hopes that attendees take it upon themselves to protect themselves and others as they celebrate their loved ones.

“We’re mindful of spreading people out, and our graduations are all planned for the outdoors this year, and we did that intentionally and set rain dates if we needed to anticipate a surge in numbers,” Hage said. “We want to be mindful to remind people of the mitigation strategies. ...

“We’re not near the numbers that we were seeing earlier in the year, but we are seeing an uptick. We are monitoring symptoms and encouraging people to get tested if they are feeling any kind of symptoms that they believe are COVID-19 related. We’re making them aware of vaccination opportunities available in our community.”