Murphy – Cherokee County’s total number of COVID-19 cases nearly doubled over the last two weeks, with 27 people learning they tested positive Saturday and Sunday alone.
The highest daily case numbers for the county – which did include one person who is a Florida resident – came as the state reported its one-day high of 2,462 confirmed new cases Saturday. Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said the increase in cases was something they have been prepared for and aware of as people try to resume regular life by going to places like work or church.
“We’re seeing this virus everywhere, whether attending church services or a wedding,” Badger said. “It’s kinda all over the map.”
Badger advised residents to do their best to mitigate the risks with activities. He added that while a mask may not guarantee a person won’t get the virus, it will help prevent it.
The state requires face coverings in public when social distancing is not possible. The order requiring masks and extending Phase 2 expires Friday, unless Gov. Roy Cooper decides to extend it.
Ages 25-49 highest %
As of Sunday afternoon, the county had 48 active cases. Since March, the county has had 106 total cases, including eight people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and two men who passed away after testing positive.
Using data collected from 80 cases, the state reported Monday that 8 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 6 percent were ages 18-24, 30 percent were ages 25-49, 23 percent were ages 50-64, 19 percent were ages 65-74 and 15 percent were 75 or older.
Last week, the health department announced it would discontinue writing press releases for each new case, but would continue providing its dashboard with the county’s testing and case numbers on weekdays and as needed on weekends. With each dashboard, the health department is providing information about the day’s new cases.
“It’s really just to be more efficient with our time,” Badger said, adding that press releases and dashboards were duplicating information.
From Monday through Sunday, 259 people were tested in Cherokee County and 177 results came back, with 37 confirmed positive. Tests are taking longer to return – in fact, the county is still waiting on a few results from Valley View Care & Rehabilitation in Andrews, which tested all residents and staff after a resident received a positive test result on June 30.
Contact tracing
From Monday through Sunday, 15 who tested positive had contact with another person who tested positive. Three additional people had contact with another person at their place of work who tested positive.
Badger said it wasn’t only one workplace that had people exposed to the virus. He reassured that the name of locations would be released if the health department felt it couldn’t do an adequate job of performing contact tracing – the detective work to determine where the person could have caught the virus from and who they could have passed it to – without reaching out to the public.
“I understand people’s desire to know,” Badger said.
As of today, the county has three people in the health department working on contact tracing. There are also a few other nurses and two state contact tracers helping the health department with contact tracing.
35 new cases
The health department reported the following 35 new cases and information since July 7:
- Two people learned they tested positive on July 7. One individual said they were exposed to the virus at work. The other person started experiencing symptoms, but had no known exposure to anyone who tested positive. One more person was determined to have recovered from the virus.
- Three people learned they tested positive on July 8, all experiencing symptoms of the virus. One resident had travel-related contact with someone who tested positive. The other two residents have no known source of contact with the virus. Two other individuals were determined to have recovered from the virus.
- One person learned they tested positive Thursday. The resident was tested after showing symptoms of the virus. The person had no known source of exposure to anyone else who tested positive. One other individual was determined to have recovered from the virus.
- Two people learned they tested positive Friday. One resident had no known source of exposure with anyone else who tested positive and was isolated in their home. The other resident also had no known source of exposure and was hospitalized due to their symptoms.
- Thirteen people learned they tested positive Saturday. Four residents started experiencing symptoms and learned they came in contact with other confirmed cases. Six residents were tested as part of pre-operative screenings, and some of those individuals have started experiencing symptoms of the virus. Three residents had no known contact with any other person who had the virus, but were experiencing symptoms. None of these 13 individuals were hospitalized as of Saturday.
- Fourteen people learned they tested positive Sunday, including a Florida resident who opted to return home to isolate. Ten individuals were in contact with other people who tested positive for the virus, and some of those individuals have developed symptoms. The other four individuals had no known contact with another person who tested positive. None of these 14 people were hospitalized as of Sunday.
- Fourteen people learned they tested positive Monday. Two of the individuals possibly were exposed while at work. Two individuals had contact with others who tested positive. One was tested as part of a pre-operative screening. Nine had no known contact with anyone else who had the virus. One of these individuals was hospitalized. In addition, one other person recovered.
As of Monday, North Carolina had 87,528 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 1,510 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 67,000 of those cases are presumed to be recovered.
More than 1.2 million North Carolinians have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 8-10 percent of the tests continued to return positive daily.