MARTINS FERRY — It’s business as usual for emergency responders around the Ohio Valley during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, just from a little further distance than before.

With health officials urging Americans to stay at home or practice social distancing between themselves and others, police and fire departments, along with paramedics sometimes don’t have the luxury of staying away from the public.

Martins Ferry Police Chief John McFarland said his department is maintaining the same services as before, but added “closing the city building was a big help.”

“We’re keeping our distance though. We’re meeting citizens that have a complaint or want to file charges on the street instead of them coming into the office,” he added. “We’re washing our hands all the time and we’re disinfecting the cruisers after each shift.”

McFarland said his department is not, at this time, wearing any type of masks, however.

The City of Wheeling’s police department is operating as normal during this national emergency. However, the city building is closed to the public.

Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger wants the public to know his departments will be fully staffed 24 hours a day. All calls will be answered as normal. However, a few minor changes have been issued in order to help our public health partners.

All crime watch meetings have been canceled for April. However, crime tips can still be called in to the non-emergency line at 304-234-3664 or reported online at wheelingwv.gov/crimetip. In-person fingerprinting services have been temporarily suspended and, unfortunately, police will not be accepting any invitations to participate in public and/or special events or non-emergency situations.

Schwertfeger said if someone has a misdemeanour offense, a property crime, traffic concern or wants to report suspicious activity, they are asked to call the non-emergency line and talk to an officer.

In Bellaire, Police Chief Richard “Dick” Flanagan has told his officers to keep their distance from members of the public whenever possible.

“I put a directive out to have as minimal amount of contact with people. You know, we’re trying to handle any call–most of the calls–over the telephone,” he noted. “The last thing we want to do at this time is to go into people’s houses and that would only be as a last resort or an extreme emergency.”

He added that his department isn’t looking for drivers to pull over. However, that’s not to say they won’t.

“At this time, it’s not a priority unless it’s something major. We’re far more likely to give a warning than a citation or an arrest.”

Dave Snyder, a supervisor with the Martins Ferry E.M.S., said the best way for everyone to cope with the pandemic is to work together.

“We are urging the public to help us help them. Please stay at home,” Snyder pleaded. “We’ve had to change some policies. We’ve had to adapt to a couple of things relative to what the Center for Disease Control and the Belmont County Health Department as well as other agencies have laid out.”

He said his department is having trouble keeping much-needed supplies on hand.

“We’ve had to order more hand sanitizer. We’ve had to order more gowns. It’s extremely tough in getting the personal protection gear we need because it’s on back-order from the companies we deal with,” he said. “We probably have hundreds and hundreds of dollars just sitting there (in an account) waiting for equipment to come in that is on back order.”

He said that’s the case everywhere and not just in Martins Ferry or Belmont County.

He outlined the steps emergency personnel will take when going on a call.

“We have to have to people on the ambulance at all times. Once we get to a call, one person will go inside and assess what is going on while the other remains in the ambulance. That is something new we’ve started to do. It limits our exposure to the patient,” Snyder said. “If the patient can ambulate, then we will have them walk to the ambulance and then we’ll let the hospital knows what is going on.”

To date, Snyder said Martins Ferry has not had a “positive case” of the virus.

“We have come across some people with the criteria for the coronavirus, but to our knowledge we haven’t had any positive cases within our ambulance service,” he said.

“Our dispatchers at 911 and the Martins Ferry Police Department are doing an excellent job of screening emergency calls and letting us know what we are getting into,” he continued. “If we need to have the extra protection, then we have it ready to go by the time we get to the call.”

Chief Tim Hall with the Cumberland Trail Fire Department in St. Clairsville said his department stopped all of its community outreach activities and limited its personnel to outside activities on March 12.

“Two days later we shut down both public firehouses to the public and separated both groups of personnel,” he noted. “All of our training is now limited to in-house. We are monitoring the temperatures of all our personnel before their respective shifts begin and then again halfway through it.”

Hall echoed Snyder’s comments on the 911 dispatchers.

“They are doing a phenomenal job of screening calls and letting us know what type of call we’re headed to,” he said.

Members of the Wheeling Fire Department are using their personal protective equipment, or PPE, more so than before.

PPE are things like gloves, safety glasses, vests, and full body suits, according to Fire Chief Larry Helms.

“That is gear that’s usually used for other types of emergencies that can keep firefighters protected from serious injuries or illnesses,” he said. “We want to limit your exposure, as well as ours. We don’t want to transmit any exposures from our personnel. We don’t want that to happen to our personnel. We are limited, so we don’t want to lose any of our personnel.”

The chief said members of his department putting masks on patients so that coughing doesn’t spread to other people.

“We’re following the protocol for fluid isolation and we’re being more diligent with it.”

Like in Martins Ferry and St., Clairsville, Helms said once an ambulance is used to transport an individual to the hospital, it is immediately decontaminated before being placed back into service.