KINGWOOD — The Preston County Health Department said Friday there are still only three confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county.
In its daily update Friday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) listed Preston with four confirmed cases.
Preston County Health Department Director V.J. Davis said whenever a lab has a positive test result for COVID-19, it is required to report it to the DHHR.
Counties are not called with that information. Instead, they monitor West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance, an electronic reporting system.
“That’s how we get notified of our positive results,” Davis said. “Those numbers aren’t reported to us.”
As of Friday afternoon, no fourth case in Preston County had been listed on WVEDS, Davis said.
A DHHR spokeswoman said the patient identified as the fourth case lists a permanent address in Preston County and so counts in Preston County.
This is not the first time Preston County and the state have disagreed on case numbers. The DHHR earlier listed a case, then changed the number after Preston health department officials found that while the patient has a permanent address in Tunnelton, he does not live there.
Davis said other counties have had similar instances.
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