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PARKERSBURG --A small number of employees at long-term care facilities in Wood and Roane counties this week tested positive for COVID-19.
Two staff members at Parkersburg Care Center on Gihon Road tested positive through routine testing on Tuesday, according to Allison Adler, director of communications for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. A single staff member at Miletree Center in Spencer tested positive as well, she said.
Both facilities are owned by Genesis Healthcare Inc. Questions about the positive tests were directed to a corporate office in Pennsylvania and a message left Friday evening was not immediately returned.
A release from the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department did not identify the facilities but only the counties in which they were located. However, Malcolm Lanham Jr., population health director for the department, confirmed the facilities DHHR identified were the ones referenced in the release.
At the Wood County facility, "all employees and residents will be tested for COVID-19 by Monday," the local release said. "Staff are following the state DHHR recommendations to protect the staff and the other residents."
All employees and resident at the Roane County facility were tested after the positive result was received, the MOVHD release says. Not all results have been received yet.
Although only two individuals in Parkersburg and one in Spencer tested positive, the situations meet the state's definition of an "outbreak" and are therefore being monitored by the local health department.
"West Virginia defines an outbreak of COVID-19 as a single case in a congregate setting (e.g. long-term care facility, assisted living, jails, group home settings, and other similar settings)," Adler said.
Both facilities are working with the health department to identify staff and residents that have been in contact with the infected individuals, the local release said.
"Those individuals will be tracked for symptoms even if their test results are negative. Precautions are being taken to reduce the spread of the virus to other residents or staff."
Genesis Miletree is the second long-term care facility in Roane County to have a small outbreak in the last week. According to the DHHR, routine surveillance testing produced a positive result for an asymptomatic employee. Subsequent testing led to a resident's positive test, according to a statement the hospital posted Monday on its Facebook page.
"We are thankful to discover that our current positives on long-term care are limited to these two individuals," the statement said.
Most of West Virginia's COVID-19 outbreaks have been in nursing homes. DHHR announced Monday that the availability of nursing home visitations and communal activities would be based on the same color-coded reentry system used for K-12 schools.
As of Friday morning, there were 26 active COVID-19 cases being monitored by the MOVHD in Wood County. Three of those are probable, meaning they have symptoms and evidence of the disease, but no confirmatory laboratory test. There have been five COVID-19-related deaths in Wood County and 258 recovered cases.
Roane County has nine active cases, none listed as probable. Fifteen people have recovered. There was one COVID-related death in Roane County, but officials have said the individual died of lung cancer after recovering from the virus. His infection in the 30 days prior to his passing was noted on the death certificate.
Staff reporter Steven Allen Adams contributed to this story.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.