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Avery County Has Ninth Confirmed COVID-19 Case

By Tim Gardner

Avery, the last of North Carolina’s 100 counties to have a resident to be afflicted with Coronavirus (COVID-19), currently has had nine confirmed to have the disease after the Avery County Health Department was notified Thursday, June 18, that another resident of the county tested positive for it.

According to the Toe River Health District, of which the Avery County Health Department is governed by, the afflicted individual is in isolation.

Public health staff are conducting an investigation and contacting close contacts to the afflicted person to help try to contain the spread of disease. To protect individual privacy, no further information about the case will be released. Also, this case is not related to any of Avery’s other afflicted individuals, the TRHD indicated.

Of Avery’s nine COVID-19 cases, five are active, while four diagnosed with the virus have recovered.

Coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste, loss of smell, headaches, sore throat, diarrhea, nausea and body aches. If you experience these symptoms, please call your healthcare provider and follow their advice. If you are having a medical emergency, call 9-1-1 and inform the dispatcher that you have symptoms of COVID-19.

 

Toe River Health District Announces That One Reported Avery Positive COVID-19 Person Is a Watauga resident

The Avery County Health Department, an entity of the Toe River Health District (TRHD), reported on June 11 that a ninth Avery County resident had tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19). That report inadvertently list that person afflicted with the virus as being from Avery County. A subsequent statement by the TRHD, revised that finding, indicating that the positive test was actually a resident of Watauga County.

“We found out that positive case (person) really lives in Watauga County, right over the line,” a TRHD social media post reported. “Even the patient thought (he or she) lived in Avery. So, we’re going to roll Avery’s positive number back one.”

According to COVID-19 statistics release by the TRHD as of June 15,

900 people have been tested in Avery County, with 852 negative results, 40 results pending and 8 total positive cases (6 active, 2 having recovered).

The Avery County Health Department conducted a pair of drive-through testing events, one on June 9 and another two days later on June 11.

Other counties that are part of the TRHD include Mitchell (Spruce Pine and Bakersville) and Yancey (Burnsville). Also, as of June 15, Mitchell reports 735 people tested, 653 negative results, 65 results pending and 17 positive cases (5 active cases and 12 having recovered). And Yancey reports 990 people tested, 874 negative results, 87 results pending and 29 positive cases (11 active and 18 having recovered).