Metcalfe COVID update: 14 cases, 2% of population tested
Special to the Edmonton-Herald News
As Gov. Beshear attempts to make masks mandatory across the state, Metcalfe County has seen only a total of 14 cases of COVID.
“We can’t wait until we’re getting thousands of cases a day to take actions,” Beshear said, in a press conference last Thursday. “It’s no longer voluntary. It’s now mandatory, and I don’t care what kind of backlash I take.”
Some feel the low tally in Metcalfe may be a rose-colored assessment, considering that only an approximate 2% of the county’s population has been tested. It is, however, to be certain of that percentage because it is yet unknown the number of Metcalfe County residents who chose to be tested in neighboring counties.
50 residents were tested at the drive-thru test sight, 40 walk-in residents have been tested at the F, H, and L Family Practice, and last week approximately 40 employees and 40 residents were tested at Metcalfe Health Care Center (MHCC).
MHCC released this statement on its Facebook page:
It is with complete joy and praise to God that we, Metcalfe Health Care Center, share with our residents, families, and community that our state-mandated COVID-19 test results are in and all are NEGATIVE!!!! These results further confirm that we have, and will continue, to work diligently to keep everyone who enters our doors as safe as possible.
Another drive-thru test site was proposed, however with little response from the community, it was not undertaken.
“Only about forty people said they would be interested and none of those committed by signing up for the testing,” said MCEM Director, Emory Kidd.
However, F, H, and L Family Practice is still offering testing to Metcalfe County.
According to a July 7 press release from the World Health Organization, the world is not out of the woods yet when it comes to this new strain of coronavirus.
It took 12 weeks for the world to reach 400 thousand cases of COVID-19.
Over the weekend, there were more than 400 thousand cases across the globe.
There have now been 11.4 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 535,000 lives have been lost.
The outbreak is accelerating and we have clearly not reached the peak of the pandemic,” said the WHO press release.
In efforts to make more progress in hampering this pandemic, the WHO is trying to understand more about the origin. The way statement said, “All preparations have been finalized, and WHO experts will be traveling to China this weekend to prepare scientific plans with their Chinese counterparts for identifying the zoonotic source of the disease.
The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission.
The mission objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans.”
Symptomatically, the details are ever-changing and new symptoms are being attributed to the virus on a daily basis.
Although numbers are rising, the advice stays the same.
“Wear a mask in public, buy a mask, and keep it with you and wash and sanitize your hands frequently. If you have a compromised immune system, don’t go out,” said Kidd, reminding the county of the advice handed down by the BRDHD.
“We are not out of the woods yet, and we must keep on with the use of the PPE and social distancing,” encouraged Judge/Executive Stilts.
To read more about the ongoing pandemic, and to see how people in the county responded to the news of mandatory masks, see the Edmonton Herald-News Facebook page.
