Barnett
Murphy – Trevis Hicks never thought his grandfather would die from an illness. It was more likely he would be found in a field after doing the work he loved.
“Granddad was always strong as an ox,” said Hicks, who works at Tri-County Community College.
On Oct. 20, Franklin Barnett passed away after about a three-week battle with COVID-19. By Oct. 21, he was determined to be Cherokee County’s 20th COVID-related death.
Hicks said he and his family took all kinds of precautions to protect his grandparents from the virus. They wore masks and did everything they could to keep them from having to go out in public.
“We kinda knew it was a horrible, horrible thing,” he said. “Our biggest fear was one of them getting it.”
However, Hicks still worked. His mother still worked. And his grandmother still wanted to get her hair done.
On Sept. 27, Hicks started noticing things tasted differently. Around the same time, Barnett started feeling a little congested. By the end of the week, both learned they tested positive for COVID-19.
His grandmother, whom they were more concerned about because she has asthma, also started experiencing symptoms and tested positive. Other members of the family started feeling sick and tested positive, too.
While everyone experienced the illness in different ways and severities, Barnett, the rock of family, experienced the worst. Hicks said his grandfather even got the “Trump cocktail” at one point. His organs started shutting down, and the hospital arranged a videoconferencing meeting so the family could say goodbye.
Everyone else in the family who tested positive is doing better or nearing the end of the illness. Hicks, while negative today, still feels some effects, like “COVID fog.” He has lost his train of thought mid-sentence during a lecture or a word just won’t come out, which worries him. He’s been assured he doesn’t have the virus anymore, but he’s concerned about these lasting effects.
Hicks said his family doesn’t blame anyone for their illness. They know it could have come from anywhere.
“We would not wish this on our worst enemy. Now, especially,” he said.
Among other leadership roles in the community, Barnett was a founding member and past president of the Rotary Club of Murphy. Hicks is both a past and future president of the club, continuing his family’s legacy.
Each time a person dies after testing positive for COVID-19, the Cherokee County Health Department calls it “an unfortunate reminder of the seriousness that surrounds COVID-19 and the potential impacts of the virus.”
Health Director David Badger said while a majority of cases have been ages 25-49, a majority of the deaths – 85 percent – have been ages 60 and older.
“Those in the higher-risk populations really have to protect themselves,” he said.
Of Cherokee County’s 20 deaths, about 30 percent have been women and 70 percent have been men. Badger said there really has not been any other connection with those who tested positive and were confirmed to have suffered a COVID-related death.
Last week, each person who tested positive for the virus was experiencing symptoms. Badger said the symptoms are “all over the map,” but most people have had mild or moderate symptoms. He has noticed a lot more people getting tested were experiencing COVID-like symptoms.
He continued to encourage local residents to seek testing if they think they were exposed to the virus.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 34 active cases. Since March, the county has had 770 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and 20 people who passed away after testing positive.
Using data collected from 769 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, 25 percent were ages 50-64, 15 percent were ages 65-74 and 13 percent were ages 75 or older.
Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider, the health department or urgent care. 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.
Last week, the state shared that there was increase in clusters from gatherings lately. While there were no clusters reported in Cherokee County, and the only major gathering outbreak was at Snowbird in August, Badger said the most common gathering for the spread of the virus locally is weddings. Some weddings, he said, have impacted people from other counties or states.
Other common places for spread of the virus have been workplaces and church, especially early on in the county.
Badger said there are concerns about gatherings spreading the virus with holidays, including Halloween, approaching. He advised that anyone who sees a gathering they’ve been invited to is too crowded, especially in a closed space, walks away.
“Everybody has to do their own part to be vigilant,” he said.
Badger said fatigue can make the situation worse.
“I think we’re all getting tired of it,” he said. “It’s just one of those things. There are so many mixed messages around it… it’s more about doing this for other people that are more vulnerable.”
As of Monday, North Carolina had 261,742 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 4,170 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 231,000 of those cases were presumed to be recovered.
As of Oct. 17, there were only three 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.