Health department reports additional COVID-19 death in Lincoln Trail District
NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Saturday, May 9, 2020 — No new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Nelson County Saturday. No additional cases were reported in the other five counties that make up the six-county Lincoln Trail District.
One additional death was reported Saturday in Meade County. This brings the total number of COVID-19-related deaths to 4.
NELSON COUNTY CASES. As of Saturday, the status of Nelson County’s COVID-19 cases have not changed: Three remain hospitalized, five are on home isolation. Twenty-two have recovered.
LINCOLN TRAIL DISTRICT CASES. Of the 133 cases in the Lincoln Trail District, 9 patients are hospitalized; 23 are on home isolation; and 97 have recovered.
The total number of cases per county is as follows:
- Hardin 58
- LaRue 6
- Marion 17
- Meade 17
- Nelson 30
- Washington 5
HEALTHY AT WORK. Healthy at Work is being rolled out gradually to ensure that we can all return safely to work. So now it is up to us to do our part to protect each other, especially our most vulnerable.
As we prepare to reopen portions of the economy, there is a lot of conversation about the need to wear masks in public. In addition to physical distancing, masks are a simple and effective way to slow the spread of the virus.
Studies have shown between 50-80% of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had mild or no symptoms. Health officials have suggested wearing masks to guard against the droplets that spray out when an asymptomatic patient infected with COVID-19 coughs or sneezes.
There have been about 25,000 new cases of the virus identified in the United States each day. Epidemiologists estimate that roughly 10 times as many people have been infected with COVID-19 than have been detected through testing. Without a protective vaccine, 70% of the population would need to be immune to the virus (herd immunity) to entirely lift physical distancing and other public health measures to slow the spread of the disease.
For this reason, workers in essential businesses and businesses that will soon reopen as well as their patrons, will need to wear masks for the foreseeable future.
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