Virus continues to spread

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  • COVID-19 cases as of May 2.
    COVID-19 cases as of May 2.
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    Murphy – Cherokee County has seen 27 cases of COVID-19 since March 18. Of those, two were non-residents, one died, and 17 have fully recovered. Over 700 people have been tested in the county.

    The Cherokee County Health Department announced early Thursday afternoon that a resident tested positive after their primary care physician tested them due to showing signs of illness. The individual is isolated in their home, and the health department has identified and notified close contacts.

    The individual has had no known contact with anyone infected with the virus.

    Three additional people were announced as testing positive Saturday evening. They were tested because they were determined to be close contacts with another confirmed case. All three are isolated in their homes.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and 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.

    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 six feet of another person for 10 minutes or more.

    As of Saturday, North Carolina had 11,509 positive cases of COVID-19 and 420 deaths since the beginning of March. Over 139,000 residents had 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.

    Updates from the health department can now be found on its new Facebook page.