Two outbreaks in one week countywide

    Two outbreaks of the coronavirus were reported over the weekend – one at Murphy Nursing & Rehabilitation in Peachtree, the other at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters in Andrews.
    As of Monday, two staff members and five residents of the nursing home had tested positive. An outbreak at a long-term care facility is two or more cases.
    The nursing home reported that they learned a resident tested positive Friday, and that resident was isolated. On Saturday, it reported that a staff member who had been wearing both a mask and face shield also tested positive and was quarantined at home. At the time, they expected the risk to be low for other staff members and residents.
    On Sunday, the health department announced that a staff member who lives out of state also tested positive. Executive Director Kelly Roberts said Monday a second resident tested positive.
    “We’re anxiously awaiting the pending results,” she said.
    Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said the outbreak started with the resident exhibiting symptoms, then snowballed to the other positive cases. State-mandated biweekly testing of nursing home staff across the state began Aug. 7, and the facility was in the process of performing their biweekly testing. Roberts said the nursing home was following all health guidelines.
    All residents were tested as the result of the first positive test, and staff testing was expected to conclude by today. The nursing home last had a resident who tested positive in June, but no outbreak was found after all residents and staff were tested.
    At Snowbird, the summer camp season just ended when the health department reported four staff members tested positive for the virus. All four staff members were residents of other states.
    Badger said the impact to Cherokee County residents was low, as much of the staff and campers were from other states. He said staff maintained detailed records and kept everyone in cohort groups, which aided in contact tracing and reducing the spread of the virus.
    According to its Facebook page, the final group of campers left Snowbird on Aug. 15.
    The outbreaks occurred after the county reached 301 total cases on Aug. 12, just 19 days after passing 200 cases. During that time, 1,353 people were tested in Cherokee County and 1,241 tests results were received.
    Badger was not surprised that the county gained about 100 cases. He said he hasn’t put much thought into how quickly the county reaches certain numbers.
    With 30-40 new cases per week, however, Badger said it could be expected. He cautioned those weekly numbers could go higher with the return of school, and his staff was prepared for the potential chaos.
    According to the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services, the state discovered differences in the electronic and manual data submitted by LabCorp. The data affected was the total number of people tested in the state, and did not affect any of the state dashboard trends and metrics.
    LabCorp determined that from April to the first week in August at-home test kits that originated out of state were included in manual reports to the state. It resulted in the state’s reported total number of tests performed to be about 200,000 higher than the actual number.
    On Thursday, Health & Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said LabCorp, which is headquartered in Burlington, has been a good partner with the state, and the state looked forward to continuing the partnership, noting the error did not affect the state’s key metrics. The completed tests total was corrected on the state’s dashboard.
    Badger said a vast majority of the tests performed by the Cherokee County Health Department are sent to LabCorp. The reporting issue had no effect on local data.
    “I’ve not had any issues,” Badger said. “LabCorp is a very well-respected lab.”
    He added that the reporting methods from labs is different for the health department, and that they do not pull reports from LabCorp as the state does.
    As of Monday afternoon, the county had 47 active cases. Since March, the county has had 332 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, while four men who passed away after testing positive. Using data collected from 294 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, 30 percent were ages 50-64, 15 percent were ages 65-74 and 10 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.
    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. People can test positive for up to three months after a COVID-19 diagnosis and not be infectious to others, the CDC clarified Friday.
    As of Monday, North Carolina had 144,952 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 2,348 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 127,000 of those cases are presumed to be recovered.
    More than 1.9 million state residents have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 6-7 percent of the tests returned positive daily.