WHEELING — Ohio and Marshall counties reported the lowest numbers of new COVID-19 cases since the fall between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Only three new cases were reported out of Ohio County on Tuesday night, while Marshall County chimed in with just one new case as of Wednesday morning.

Both counties have reported double-digit daily tallies almost constantly since November, occasionally reporting dozens of new cases since the start of the holiday season. The counties’ reports between Tuesday and Wednesday morning showed a sign that the public health measures in place seemed to be having a positive effect.

Statewide, COVID cases were receding as well. The Department of Health and Human Resources map, once an undifferentiated shade of red, now reported only seven counties in the orange. Ohio and Marshall counties were both yellow as of Wednesday.

“It was around October, we were seeing the number of cases we’re seeing right now,” said Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble. “It’s a bit welcome to be back into an area where cases are lower; we’re running tests at our location, at Wheeling Hospital, Med Express; the clinics and testing are still out there, but we’re not seeing positives from those. Maybe our efforts are paying off, whether it’s vaccinations and education, just general awareness.”

Marshall County’s Threat Preparedness Director Mark Ackermann was more cautious in his assessment, saying that while he was glad to see the numbers were low, he wondered if recent inclement weather may have impacted the speed of test results.

“Due to the weather conditions, we suspended testing here for two weeks,” he said. “We don’t know if it has anything to do with that at this point, because we’re not getting our full results back yet.”

Both officials speculated that the late winter snow may have kept people indoors and away from community spread, with Ackermann saying it may have discouraged testing. Tuesday’s testing, he said, brought in around 30 people for testing, roughly half of what Marshall County normally sees.

Gamble said Ohio County had mostly been seeing spread among family members, rather than from community spread.

“A lot of the cases that we see these days are from family members,” he said. “Someone within the house gets it and it’s very easily spread to others in the house, versus a lot of community spread where individuals were getting it because they went somewhere, or couldn’t identify where they got it.

“We have a level of comfort (at home), but there’s still a level of caution that we have to remember. Sometimes we’re very comfortable when we’re with loved ones, that maybe we (think we) don’t need to do things like wear masks and social distance that we’ve done in the past. With the cases we’re seeing, that’s not 100 percent.”

Gamble referenced the state’s COVID-19 map, which states that Ohio County is now reporting 24.3 percent of its population vaccinated; Marshall County reports 18.5 percent. Gamble said that the low number of new cases is likely not caused just from the number of vaccine doses given out, and that the effect of those will only be apparent weeks down the line.

“We won’t see a vaccine-related change in our cases for quite some time,” he said. “… Individuals who got their first dose have to wait a certain time before they can get their second dose. … If you were just getting one vaccine, we’d see, in Ohio County, 50 percent of the population would be vaccinated by now, but we only have just about 25 percent. To say we’ve seen a huge benefit from the vaccine, not so much.

“… The vaccine benefit to lower numbers will not be seen for several weeks, and when it does, we’ll begin to see it on a larger scale,” he continued. “Second doses are really picking up, there’s a possibility of a third (Johnson and Johnson brand) vaccine, and right now, because there’s a two dose system among targeted groups, we won’t see an impact on our public health numbers for quite some time.”