ST. CLAIRSVILLE – More testing for the novel coronavirus is finding more positive cases, putting Belmont County at more than 80 total cases — a significant number of which were found among inmates at the Belmont Correctional Institution and in nursing homes.

“Now that we’re testing more, there’s a chance we would find more,” Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul said. “The more we test, that’s one of the reasons. And we’re hitting these facilities, so now we’re getting a lot of facilities online that we’re testing, and we’re seeing numbers there.

“I think we’re plateauing out, we just haven’t got to the point of dropping off. We’re just kind of at the plateau,” he continued.

“Now that we’re able to test more in certain areas, we’re able to locate more. It’s not like we’ve tripled in our numbers overnight. We’ve been coming up a little bit, but we kind of expected it. … We’re just trying to get these people quarantined so they don’t transmit it.”

The number of cases had been reported in the 70s Monday.

“Actually we’re at 85 now,” Sproul said, adding this includes 13 patients who have tested positive at the prison.

“There’s a number of them. … The ones we’re hearing about are the ones supposedly being released, is what we were told. These are part of Gov. (Mike) DeWine’s release program. To try and reduce the prison population, he was reducing the sentences of certain prisoners that were nonviolent, had a limited time left in their sentence.”

Sproul said the inmates had to be tested prior to release.

“That’s where they found the initial ones,” Sproul said, noting that the newest prison cases could either be inmates set for release, or inmates who were in contact with the first two positive cases found there.

“They’re not giving us a whole lot of information. We’re just seeing the positives coming out,” he added. “We’re just seeing the numbers that are positive associated with the prison, not their circumstances.”

Sproul said his office has provided some guidance to the prison about taking precautions to prevent the spread of the illness.

“We’ve been in contact for a long while,” Sproul said. “Since it’s a state facility, the state has been taking the lead on the guidance over there, same with the testing.”

Requests for comment from the prison were referred to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Ohio’s prisons have been putting precautionary measures into effect with the onset of the pandemic.

According to figures released Sunday by the state, Ohio’s prisons account for close to one-fourth of the state’s coronavirus cases.

Sproul said other county statistics related to COVID-19 remain steady. He said 21 patients have recovered and been released from quarantine and four patients are hospitalized. Seven residents have died as a result of the virus. The fatalities occurred in individuals who were in their 50s, 70s, 80s and 90s, all with prior health issues.

Sproul said a significant number of new positive cases are being found in nursing homes.

“The state is going to be putting on the website also the list of positives for nursing homes for each county. That will be on coronavirus.ohio.gov,” he said.

He said additional testing kits have been made available to Ohio’s counties through a private lab.

“We received a few. We’re going to support the nursing homes and first responders within the county, but it was a very limited number. We haven’t received anymore since. Basically we wait to see every day if we have received something new from Columbus.”

Sproul said his staff is keeping up with the task of alerting the contacts of every new individual with a positive test.