Murphy – While Cherokee County has seen a total of 23 cases of COVID-19 since mid-March, it has also seen 17 recoveries, with many patients only experiencing mild symptoms.
“It doesn’t mean we take this any less seriously,” Health Director David Badger said.
While he wants to celebrate the recoveries – he thinks too often the focus is on worst-case scenarios, although about 85 percent of cases are mild or show minimal symptoms – he also wants local residents to continue reducing their risk.
“People should be aware of where they are going and what the risks may be,” Badger said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear two to 14 days after exposure. Symptoms now include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell.
Badger recommends residents stay at home and only leave for essential activities. He said not only does this help reduce the chances of transmission, it also helps the health department if they have to do contact tracing.
He said what’s going on in neighboring states has been a concern for a while, and Georgia lowering restrictions for personal services won’t help. Cherokee County probably will not see the effects of that for another two to three weeks.
In the last week, two local residents who work in Georgia tested positive for COVID-19. Both were tested by their employer. Another resident who was not experiencing symptoms was tested by their health-care provider and received results they were positive Saturday evening.
Badger said it’s important that more testing is being performed, especially on those not experiencing symptoms. Testing and ongoing surveillance allows them to gather more information about the coronavirus.
While testing was much more limited early on, and is still limited by the availability of kits, more people are getting tested under a variety of circumstances. While people some who are not experiencing symptoms get tested because of possible exposure, Badger said there are other factors that could prompt testing, including the desire to get tested.
“Providers are talking to patients and making decisions based on those patients’ needs,” he said.
Badger added that in order to meet the state’s goal of testing 5,000-7,000 people per day, more people without symptoms need to be tested.
Out of the 23 total cases reported in the county since March 18, two were non-residents. Only one person who tested positive has died.
Local residents are reminded to continue practicing measures to prevent spreading the virus, like using good hygiene habits, staying home if sick and social distancing. In public places where social distancing is difficult, the CDC recommends wearing a cloth face covering. Close contact is defined as being within 6 feet of another person for 10 minutes or more.
As of Monday, North Carolina had 9,142 positive cases of COVID-19 and 306 deaths since the beginning of March. More than 109,000 residents have been tested. The state is not reporting recoveries and does not take recoveries away from its total number of cases, as it does with deaths.