ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Two Belmont County residents in their 80s are hospitalized for symptoms likely related to the novel coronavirus while another person in the county has tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, EQT Corp. has resumed operations that were temporarily halted after a contractor who visited a company site in the county tested positive for the virus.

County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul reported on the new cases Tuesday.

“One of our positives and their corresponding presumptive positive, they’re in the same house, were starting to have a little bit of an issue so they went to the hospital just to get checked out,” Sproul said noting they are a married man and woman. “So they’re in the hospital’s care right now. I don’t have any other details on their condition.”

The results for the wife’s coronavirus test have not yet been received.

“They haven’t got the test back,” Sproul said. “That’s why we’re still calling it ‘presumptive,’ because they’re in very close contact with a positive and we just haven’t gotten the results back.”

Sproul declined to say which hospital they were admitted to, saying the hospital requested that he not release that information.

“They both were feeling a little bit off, so as a precaution they went to the hospital,” he said, adding that they likely were hospitalized late Monday. “If they’re having issues, the best place to be is the hospital, because they have the resources and the knowledge to be able to take care of them.”

In addition, another case of COVID-19 has been confirmed, bringing the county to nine total positive results.

“We added one new positive,” Sproul said, adding the patient is a man in his 50s. “He’s quarantined with one person at this point. We’re still looking through a lot of the details.”

“Four of our cases will actually be released. They’ll reach the end of their quarantine in the next day or two,” Sproul added.

The first two Belmont County cases were reported March 13, and county health officials acted to quarantine them and notify the people they had contacted. They are a husband and wife in their 50s who apparently contracted the virus while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., in late February. The husband was hospitalized and released. Both have since recovered.

Last week, five new cases were reported, including the husband of a woman who tested positive earlier and three women who had been traveling. Those individuals are in their 30s, 40s and 60s.

“As of (Monday) there’s been 211 tests completed for Belmont County residents, and we’re sitting presently at nine positives,” Sproul said.

In related news, a confirmed positive case also shut down EQT’s well completion operations last week. On Tuesday Josie Schultz, external communications manager for EQT, confirmed those operations have resumed.

“We will continue to monitor and thoroughly sanitize our sites, as the safety and well-being of our employees and contractors is of utmost importance to us,” she wrote in a statement, adding that it is EQT’s policy not to release information about employees or contractors.