County shows uptick in COVID-19 cases

Posted 7/1/20

As last Wednesday, June 24, began, there were 192 reported cases of COVID-19 in Franklin County. By Tuesday, June 30, that number had grown to 205 cases. The Department of Health and Senior …

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County shows uptick in COVID-19 cases

Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2020 4:28 pm

A message from Health Department Director Angie Hittson:

The Franklin County Health Department staff have been working around the clock to respond to Covid-19 in Franklin County. Since March we have reached out to every case in order to complete a patient interview and quarantine. Every individual identified as a close personal contact is interviewed and quarantined. Health department staff provide education, guidance, support and resources as needed. At the end of the fourteen-day quarantine period we follow up with one last patient interview. If during that interview it is determined (based off of the information provided to us by the patient) that the person has met guidelines to discontinue isolation/quarantine we move them to “recovered”.

The Franklin County Health Department has fourteen full time employees. Four of these employees with the assistance of two part time contact tracers are tasked with Covid-19 case investigations seven days a week. Each of our fourteen employees are required to respond in some way to COVID AND maintain all other job responsibilities required by the grants/contracts that fund us.

As last Wednesday, June 24, began, there were 192 reported cases of COVID-19 in Franklin County. By Tuesday, June 30, that number had grown to 205 cases. The Department of Health and Senior Services lists 206 cases in the county.

While Franklin County lists the cases by locality, Gerald is lumped with Leslie and Beaufort, making it hard to track. It seems Gerald still has only one active case, a 64-year-old man. The Beaufort area seems to have logged its first case, a 20-year-old male. Leslie is showing only two recovered cases.

There were no new deaths from the virus this week, leaving that total at 18.

There were 33 active cases as of Tuesday morning, according to county officials. Of those, 16 are in skilled nursing facilities, while 17 reside elsewhere in the county.

Statewide, COVID-19 cases increased by 2,683 in the past week with 40 additional deaths. The state has confirmed 21,551 cases and 1015 deaths since tracking began.