Lisa Hechesky / Reuters

Residents pick up drinking water at the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, on Friday.

Nearly 800 people in West Virginia have reported symptoms after a chemical spill contaminated the water supply for nine counties, officials said Saturday.

By Saturday afternoon, the state's poison control center had logged 787 human exposure calls and 54 animal exposure calls since the massive leak sparked a tap-water ban for 300,000 residents, said the director Dr. Elizabeth Scharman.

Many of those were from people experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, skin irritation or rashes in “varying degrees of severity," Scharman said. 

The center — which called in staff from vacation, recruited volunteers and put workers on 16-hour shifts — recommended that only a few callers go to the emergency room because most of the symptoms can be treated at home. 

At least 90 people showed up at hospitals, though the vast majority of them didn't require emergency treatment, Scharman said. As many as five people have been admitted. 

The West Virginia American Water Co. announced Thursday that its water supply had become contaminated, after a leak from a Freedom Industries storage tank about a mile upstream on the Elk River sent a strange licorice-like smell wafting through the streets in Charleston, the state capital.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties after the spill of up to 5,000 gallons into the Elk River. 

"If you live in one of these areas, do not use tap water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, or bathing. At this time, I do not know how long this will last," Tomblin said Friday.