Coronavirus cases number 200 in county

    Murphy – In the last week, Cherokee County had about 80 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the county’s total since March to more than 200 cases.
    Of the 73 residents who received positive test results between July 20 and Sunday, about 54 percent were those who had contact with previously reported cases. Health Director David Badger said most of those were the result of contact tracing, in which the health department gathers information from a patient and finds those they were in close contact with, and as a result could have passed the virus to.
    To make contact tracing easier – and to help control the spread of the virus – local residents should try to limit their movements in the community, and be aware of where they’ve been, Badger said.
    “We really don’t want people to get sick,” he said. “We really want people to be safe.”
    Badger said the future of the virus in the community is unknown, but he thinks we will continue to see a steady increase in cases. Every individual should use effective precautions, like limiting movements and wearing masks. People should also consider the risks involved with attending large gatherings, like church services, weddings or going on a vacation.
    “It’s pretty much everywhere,” he said. “I encourage people to take the risk of this virus seriously.”
    Badger told members of the Murphy Rotary Club meeting at Murphy’s ChopHouse on Monday that it was the first time he had been in a restaurant since February, as he has been limiting his personal travel.
    While the virus affects each person differently, it does seem to be affecting more people lately. In the last week, all but five were experiencing symptoms of the virus, three were reported as hospitalized and one person died after testing positive.
    “We certainly are seeing more and more that are coming back symptomatic,” Badger said. He added that the effects still range from mild to severe, but the hospitalizations and additional death lean toward the more severe.
    The time to wait for test results is getting better – in the last week test results were being returned from labs in 3-5 days, instead of 5-9 days the weeks before. There were about 475 people tested last week, with 468 still awaiting results Sunday evening. He said there have been issues with the wait time affecting people needing medical procedures.
    “We try to work with people the best we can,” Badger said. “This is not something unique to Cherokee County.”
    He said often hospitals will require patients take a test at the hospital for medical procedures. However, even those facilities have been affected by national supply chain issues.
    As of Sunday afternoon, the county had 132 active cases. Since March, the county has had 221 total cases, including 13 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and three men who passed away after testing positive. Using data collected from 201 cases, the state reported Monday that 9 percent of the county’s cases were ages 0-17, 7 percent were ages 18-24, 26 percent were ages 25-49, 34 percent were ages 50-64, 14 percent were ages 65-74 and 9 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, according to the CDC.
    As of Monday, North Carolina had 114,338 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 1,790 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 92,000 of those cases are presumed to be recovered. More than 1.6 million North Carolinians have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 7-8 percent of the tests returned positive daily.