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Two Macon County departments have sent employees home to quarantine due to COVID-19 in the past week.
Officials with a pair of Macon County public service departments confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 among employees on Monday.
Macon County Emergency Services Coordinator Warren Cabe notified the public that two EMS employees tested positive and have been sent home to self-isolate.
“All EMS employees wear masks and other personal protective equipment on all patient encounters,” Cabe said in a written statement. “Sanitation and specialized cleaning occurs regularly on all ambulances and crew quarters. The healthcare system in general is still considered very safe due to all of the measures taken in an effort to ensure the safety and well being of the general public and to minimize the risk for exposure within the system.”
Cabe added that Macon County Emergency Services has a contingency plan in place to ensure that services will not be interrupted at any point.
In addition to the two EMS employees who are sidelined due to COVID-19, Macon County Public Health officials indicated that an employee in the health department has also tested positive and is in quarantine.
The confirmed case at MCPH is the second in as many weeks.
MCPH staff are working to conduct contact tracing to determine if any additional close contacts need to be tested. The area where the employee worked has been cleaned and disinfected, according to information provided by MCPH officials.
The new cases among county employees come in a week where the number of active COVID-19 cases declined countywide. As of Wednesday, there had been 530 confirmed COVID-19 cases, but of those only 29 are active cases. A total of 497 patients have recovered from the virus and four people have died as a result.
As of Wednesday, there have been 157,741 confirmed cases in North Carolina and 2,570 deaths. Nationwide there have been 5.7 million confirmed cases and 177,873 deaths.