Murphy – Contrary to what was said on a local radio program this week, Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said there is no identified “super carrier” or “super spreader” in the community.
Mayor Rick Ramsey made reference to a potential super carrier during his weekly mayoral update on WKRK. A super carrier is someone who infects more people than others.
Badger said there is no way to confirm whether an individual is a super carrier through contact tracing. While he did not hear what Ramsey said, he thought the concern came from local numbers continuing to increase.
“The reality is people need to accept the virus is in the community,” Badger said.
He said anyone could have the virus – the person sitting next to at the doctor’s office, at church or on public transportation.
The only trend he is seeing is that the county is seeing new cases daily. Badger said everyone must take precautions against the virus.
“Hopefully, we can try to ebb the steady reporting out of cases,” he said.
One positive is that the county is not seeing a rash of hospitalizations. As of Monday afternoon, no COVID-19 in the county was hospitalized unless they were out of state, Badger said. In the 17 westernmost counties of the state, there were 41 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, with 69 percent of the region’s hospitals reporting.
While Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort was identified as having a COVID-19 by health officials, Badger said the Cherokee County Health Department has not identified a cluster at Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel in Murphy.
On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper extended Phase 2 for three more weeks after the state recorded a one-day total of 1,956 confirmed new cases that day, bringing the state’s total cases since March to 89,484. Throughout the last week, several large retailers – including Walmart, Lowe’s and Ingles – announced they would start requiring customers to wear face coverings inside their stores.
In addition to wearing masks, residents are reminded to continue practicing measures to prevent spreading the virus, like using good hygiene habits, monitoring their health, staying home if sick and social distancing. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention advises the best way to prevent getting the virus is to avoid being exposed to it.
The CDC believes the virus is spread primarily through close contact with another person through respiratory droplets, and recommends people maintain social distancing of about 6 feet, wash hands often with soap and water, disinfect surfaces and wear a cloth face covering in public, especially when social distancing is difficult.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 91 active cases. Since March, the county has had 155 total cases, including 10 people from other states who tested positive while in the county and two men who passed away after testing positive. Using data collected from 127 cases, the state reported Monday that 7 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 4 percent were ages 18-24, 26 percent were ages 25-49, 32 percent were ages 50-64, 18 percent were ages 65-74 and 13 percent were ages 75 or older.
The health department reported the following 49 new cases and information since July 14:
- Two of the individuals reported as testing positive on July 13 were determined to be Florida residents. The health department reported 14 new cases Monday.
- On July 14, the health department reported three new cases. Two individuals were contacts of a previously reported case, while one had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. Two of the three were experiencing symptoms, and none of the three were hospitalized as of Tuesday.
- On July 15, the health department reported 10 new cases. Five individuals were contacts of previously reported cases. Four were residents who had out-of-state travel-related contact with the virus. The other individual had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. All 10 were experiencing symptoms. Five previously reported individuals were determined to have recovered from the virus.
- On Thursday, the health department reported five new cases. One was a contact of a previously reported case, while another was in contact with a visitor. Three had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. Four of these individuals had developed symptoms.
- On Friday, the health department reported six new cases. Three residents were contacts of a previously reported case, while the other three had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. Four of the six were experiencing symptoms. One previously reported individual was determined to have recovered from the virus.
- On Saturday, the health department reported five new cases. Four were contacts of previously reported cases, while one had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. All five were experiencing some symptoms.
- On Sunday, the health department reported seven new cases. All seven were contacts of previously reported cases. Four of the seven were experiencing symptoms of the virus.
- On Monday, the health department reported 13 new cases. Eight were contacts of previously reported cases. Two residents were exposed during travel. Three had no known contact with anyone who had the virus. Twelve were experiencing symptoms of the virus. Thirteen previously reported individuals were determined to have recovered from the virus.
Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider, the health department or urgent care. According to the CDC, 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 101,046 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 1,642 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March, with 78,000 of those cases presumed to be recovered. More than 1.4 million North Carolinians have been tested for the virus. In the past week, 7-9 percent of the tests continued to return positive daily.