ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Local deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic increased during September, and health department officials noted those who succumbed were not vaccinated.

Belmont County Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul said Belmont County has had a total of 9,089 confirmed cases since the pandemic’s onset, with 8,115 recovered. There are currently 823 active cases, including 18 hospitalizations.

There have been 133 deaths associated with the virus in the county.

“From Sept. 1 ’til now we have had 11 new deaths,” Sproul said via text message Friday. “Many had diabetes, asthma, and/or cardiovascular disease. They were also not vaccinated.”

Numbers reported by the state differ from local figures, as they have throughout the pandemic.

According to coronavirus.ohio.gov, there have been 8,740 total cases in Belmont County, with 7,725 recoveries and 194 deaths.

The Harrison County Health Department reports 1,731 total cases with 1,623 recoveries, 81 active cases and 27 deaths associated with the virus. On Sept. 8, deaths were at 24.

Coronavirus.ohio.gov reports 1,713 total cases in Harrison County, with 1,502 recoveries and 41 deaths.

Garen Rhome, administrator at the Harrison County Health Department, said the way deaths are reported also impacts the timing of updated numbers, delaying official COVID death count increases even though obituaries are immediate.

“We always wait for confirmation from the (electronic death reporting system) to come through, and that creates a lag in time. An individual might pass away last weekend. … It could take two, three, four weeks sometimes before we see an official electronic death reported with COVID listed as a related cause of death,” he said.

“Probably in the next two weeks or three weeks, I would say the potential is there for us to see a few more related deaths,” he said. “We know that they had a COVID infection. We know they were hospitalized. … There was a large caseload in September. There’s a very good possibility in the next two, three, four, five weeks out, we might see a few more deaths reported, unfortunately.”

He also said those who died were older people with comorbidities. All were also unvaccinated.

“The ICUs, the critical care patients and unfortunately the deaths are still among the unvaccinated,” Rhome said. “All the deaths (in Harrison County) are unvaccinated. Occasionally we may see a hospitalized person that’s vaccinated. … We probably see breakthrough cases at maybe a rate of 15-20 percent each day. … Those folks generally recover at home.”

Rhome added that cases have recently declined in Harrison County. In September, his office had seen 30-40 active cases daily.

“We definitely saw a large surge in cases,” he said.

“I really encourage people now to get vaccinated before it hits home,” Rhome said. “A lot of the people who are deciding now to get their vaccination series, they’re getting the vaccine because they finally saw it impact their lives personally. Someone they know got very ill or someone they knew died.

“The daily cases are much better than they were two or three weeks ago,” he said. “September we did see the most new cases of COVID, more than any other month we had, even worse than November and December of 2020.”

Rhome suspects Harrison Hills City School District’s universal masking policy for students, faculty and staff may have helped cause the reduction.

The Monroe County Health Department could not be reached for comment Friday, but according to its Facebook page there have been 2,027 confirmed and probable cases since the pandemic began and 1,882 recoveries. There are 96 active cases now, and 49 deaths have been associated with the virus. The site listed 42 deaths Sept. 7, so an additional seven people died while infected with COVID over the past month.

According to coronavirus.ohio.gov there have been 2,038 total cases, with 1,795 recoveries and 50 deaths.