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MARIETTA -- Of Washington County's 36 cases that had been confirmed over the weekend, 25 are reportedly founded at the Heartland of Marietta nursing facility in Devola.
Marietta-Belpre Health Commissioner Anne Goon confirmed the area hotspot over the weekend during an emergency board of health meeting for the joint city health department.
"There has been wide-spread testing there that makes is so we have some unique data here in Washington County that is not available elsewhere in the state. Our regional epidemiologist confirmed for me that of the 25 positive cases related to that facility only seven of those were symptomatic at the time of the test," said Goon. "Meaning, 72 percent did not have symptoms but they were positive."
She said this testing of facility staff and residents at the Devola nursing center shows a unique metric that most testing across Ohio will not show.
"It just happened to be in this situation that the medical director chose to have all of the residents and employees tested and that's how we know there (are) so many positive, asymptomatic people," she said.
However, the board met in an emergency session not to discuss the number of cases that are presently reported by the Ohio Department of Health for the region.
They met to decide whether or not to share that privileged information with both cities' law enforcement, firefighters and EMS workers in order to preserve limited personal protection equipment.
Board members Suzanne Baker, Joel Whitaker, Laurie Strahler and Laurie Gwinn each participated in the discussion, seeking input not only from both city mayors but also Belpre Police Chief Terry Williams, Marietta Police Chief Rodney Hupp, Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham and both city law directors Tom Webster and Paul Bertram.
"Once we use up our 20 suits (of full personal protective equipment) we're not going to have any to protect our guys," shared Williams, responding to calls to simply treat all individuals with the assumption that they are carrying the pandemic virus.
Chief Hupp added that one concern in addition to the limited supply of masks, gloves and full infection control suits is where do police powers fall in enforcing quarantine of positive individuals and individuals who are under monitoring by the health department for potential exposure.
"Exactly where do we fall? Do I arrest them for inducing panic, do I arrest them for misconduct in an emergency, I don't have those answers," said Hupp. "In the absence of names and addresses of affected individuals our hands are being brutally tied in this situation."
Durham also spoke out on behalf of the surrounding volunteer fire and EMS agencies in the county, noting that each member of those departments take the same oaths and fall under the same patient privacy requirements that fully-paid departments do.
"We have an amazing group of volunteer responders in the county and the volunteer EMTs that are being referred to hold the exact same EMT card that I do and follow the exact same protocols and standards that I have to meet," said Durham. "They work under the same medical director that we do so they are entrusted with the same personal, protected information that we are and they have to act in that same accord... Volunteer or career we're all at the same level."
But in the approximately hour and a half meeting, the board did not reach a consensus on how much information to share with the two cities' first responders.
They unanimously tabled the discussion until April 17, their next regularly scheduled meeting, requiring Goon to provide more information to the board and allowing both Marietta Law Director Bertram and Belpre Law Director Webster time to research past legal business agreements between health departments and local first responders before the two city health departments combined.
Goon and Baker also noted that Gov. Mike DeWine's announcement Friday about additional reporting of clinical diagnoses of the virus, sans testing, has come without additional guidance from the state.
"We really haven't gotten any written guidance on that," said Goon. "I don't know if we'll be notified of those positives."
Baker, who served previously as the infection control specialist for Memorial Health System before retirement, said reporting from physicians of clinical diagnoses is not often followed.
"From my experience at the hospital, the physician offices very often did not do the reporting," said Baker. "They're so busy and they're so tasked that they won't report a probable case or clinical (diagnosis) so the numbers are going to be really, really sketchy until they do the actual test. A blood test or a swab and then the hospital infection control practitioners should report that."
Goon said reporting requirements have also been modified this week regarding COVID-19, adding a degree of complexity to what was originally a Class A reportable disease requiring immediate notification to the jurisdictional health department.
"The facility who gets the positive result... they (now) have 24 hours to let us know, then within that same 24-hour period we're supposed to notify the state," Goon explained. "But I don't know how enforceable it becomes once you have widespread testing."
Goon also reported that both Memorial Health System and WVU Medicine Camden Clark have shared they will be able to begin rapid testing on-site for each health system next week.
Durham also shared that he is in the process of setting up protocols to begin decontaminating used personal protective equipment for the local fire/EMS and law enforcement personnel in the region and said he anticipates sharing more on that front Monday.
The board will next meet on April 17 to consider two proposals:
Option 1: Share only the street name where a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 lives.
Option 2: Share the name and home address of each person with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
The board unanimously asked that both proposals be brought to the next meeting, but declined Saturday to have the third option advocated for by both police chiefs, Marietta Law Director Paul Bertram and Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham, to include individuals under monitoring via contact tracing by the health department in the release of information proposals.
The meeting is scheduled to be held entirely virtually via Zoom teleconference and broadcast via Facebook Live at 10 a.m. that Friday.