.
Murphy – Thanksgiving caused some interesting numbers on the county’s daily dashboard for COVID-19, and may continue to show abnormal numbers a few days this week.
Because the Cherokee County Health Department’s last day of testing for the week was Nov. 25, the number of those waiting for results – or “pending” – got as low as one Saturday. The only places testing over the holiday were hospitals and urgent care facilities, Health Director David Badger said.
As a result, he said there may be a lull at the beginning of the week for results, but said there will be a noticeable increase on pending results as the health department was busy testing people Monday morning. Depending on results, there may appear to be a spike in cases when Monday’s results are received.
Most of Monday’s tests were related to contact tracing. While it was too early to evaluate Thanksgiving gatherings, Badger said any time people gather, they are increasing their risk of spreading the virus.
Badger encouraged testing for anyone who thinks they may have been exposed or is experiencing symptoms. He knows the idea of being quarantined can be scary, but hopes people understand they shouldn’t put others at risk. Testing helps the health department take interventions at reducing the spread.
“Out individual choices have a large impact on our community as a whole,” Badger said.
The goal is to keep the county rate of positive test results down – ideally it would be at 0 percent, but Badger said he would like to see 5 percent consistently, like the state. The percent positive indicates the spread of the virus, or how rampant the spread is in the community, comparing it to a controlled burn.
“The lower the number of positives, the lower the risk of infection,” Badger said.
In November, 964 people received test results, while 167, or 17 percent, were positive for the virus. Of those who tested positive, 96 percent were experiencing symptoms. A majority of cases, nearly 60 percent, were due to community spread.
Badger encouraged everyone to be mindful of precautions they can take as the weather gets colder and people are indoors more. Those include proper hand washing, keeping a distance from others and wearing mask. Even though it’s not 100 percent effective, it’s better than nothing.
“If there’s a value to using a mask, it’s a benefit,” Badger said. “The virus is still there.”
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 45 active cases. Since March, the county has had 952 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and 21 people who passed away after testing positive. Badger said he knew of one person hospitalized Monday.
Using data collected from 932 cases, the state reported Monday that 10 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 8 percent were ages 18-24, 28 percent were ages 25-49, 24 percent were ages 50-64, 17 percent were ages 65-74 and 13 percent were ages 75 or older.
Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider. COVID-19 symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear 2-14 days after exposure, while flu symptoms appear 1-4 days after exposure.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, both COVID-19 and flu symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, muscle aches, headache and nausea or vomiting, diarrhea. COVID-19 symptoms may also include a loss of taste or smell.
As of Nov. 21, there were only 11 people who tested positive for the flu and one flu-associated death across the state this season, according to the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services.