Positive tests almost reach 300 in county
Sunday was the first day since July 3 there were no new COVID-19 cases in Cherokee County. Health Director David Badger said it was nice to see, but called it just a matter of timing.
“I don’t want people to think one day creates a trend,” Badger said.
By midday Monday, there were already five new confirmed cases. He said just because the county may have 30 active confirmed cases at a given time doesn’t mean there aren’t 300 total active cases in the community due to people not showing symptoms or not getting tested.
Sometimes the number of results fluctuate because of the day in the week when people are being tested. Test results are taking two or three days to return, and the health department does not perform tests on Saturdays and Sundays, while other facilities may. As a result, tests taken on Thursday and Friday are typically coming back Saturday, Sunday and Monday, while tests taken at the beginning of the week are coming back at the end of the week.
Badger thinks as kids return to school next week, we’ll see more cases. He added that any cases revealed on the second day of school will have nothing to do with students being in class.
“They’ve had it before, just now they’re getting screened and tested for it,” he said. The health department has been working closely with the schools and is prepared to move quickly, if needed.
Although there were a couple of hospitalizations last week, Badger was unsure of how many COVID-19 patients were hospitalized as of Monday morning. Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital officials said the highest number of COVID patients the Peachtree facility has had at once was six.
Although there’s been an increase in hospital volume as community spread increases, the local hospital has not encountered supply issues due to partnering with Erlanger Health System and other resources, Erlanger Western Carolina CEO Stephanie Boynton said. However, due to the supply chain being disrupted for rapid tests – which provide results in 1-2 hours – those tests are not readily available for all non-emergency
situations.
For COVID patients, the hospital is using various treatments based on each patient’s symptoms. Some patients were given the drug remdesivir for their symptoms, but the hospital is also utilizing steroids, antibiotics, fever reducers and other medications to help patients.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 40 active cases. Since March, the county has had 296 total cases, including 14 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and four men who passed away after testing positive. Using data collected from 274 cases, the state reported Monday that 11 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 7 percent were ages 18-24, 28 percent were ages 25-49, 29 percent were ages 50-64, 15 percent were ages 65-74 and 11 percent were ages 75 or older.
Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider, the health department or urgent care. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, fatigue, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea and new loss of taste or smell. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear 2-14 days after exposure.
Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but older adults and those with underlying medical conditions appear to be at higher risk for severe illness. The CDC also said it’s possible for a person to be contagious two days before having symptoms and remain contagious at least 10 days after first showing signs of having the virus.
As of Monday, North Carolina had 136,844 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 2,172 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 116,000 of those cases are presumed to have
recovered. More than 2 million state residents have been tested for the virus. (UPDATE: A reporting discrepancy caused this number to be incorrectly reported by the state. The actual number was about 200,00 less. No other metrics were affected, according to the state.) In the last week, 5-8 percent of the tests returned positive daily, with the state dropping to 5 percent Sunday.