Two Ocracoke COVID Cases Reported

Sundae Horn
August 25 stats
August 25 stats

As of Tuesday, August 25, Ocracoke's zip code shows 2 active COVID cases.

One Ocracoke resident is hospitalized with COVID-19. 

Hyde County currently has 28 active cases of COVID-19 and 52 recovered cases. 

Hyde County Health Department director Luana Gibbs said today that she will usually post a press release every Tuesday, but did not yet have all the information she was waiting for and so would likely send it our early Wednesday. 

She confirmed that one Ocracoke patient is hospitalized in Greenville. I asked if the second confirmed case was one of our local college students (living off the island giving Ocracoke as a home address); Gibbs said she didn't know. 

The Ocracoke coconut telegraph is usually pretty reliable about illness (we like to take care of each other) and we haven't heard of another COVID case on the island. 

We have learned, and Ms Gibbs confirmed, that several island residents have been called because they were exposed to positive cases. 

"We're doing lots of contact tracing," she said. "As soon as we get a positive lab result, our case investigation starts with contact tracing."

Contacts (individuals who've had more than ten minutes of contact, without a mask, within six feet of the positive COVID case) are asked to quarantine for 14 days and to get a test at about day 6 of their exposure. 

"Even if you get a negative test, you could still test positive later," Gibbs explained. "But unless you develop symptoms, you don't need another test."

Those with COVID-19 symptoms and a positive test results need to isolate for at least 10 days from the onset of symptoms. 

Gibbs pointed out that the health department uses the terms "quarantine" and "isolate" for different situations. The words aren't interchangeable.

An individual is asked to "quarantine" when they aren't ill, but have a known contact with someone who tested positive. 

If you are ill or have a positive COVID test, then you "isolate."

The words differentiate potential and actual COVID cases, but the behavior is the same for both: STAY HOME. 

I asked Ms Gibbs about the story I'd heard that one of our positive cases tested negative once, then positive. 

Without discussing any specifics of any individuals or confirming any rumors, Gibbs said that the scenario was possible. 

"It's possible to have false negatives because there's not enough virus developed yet," she said. She added that patients could start out being sick with one illness (e.g., the flu) and develop COVID later. 

That's why they recommend that contacts wait 6 days from exposure for their test (while quarantining) to give the virus time to multiply and be counted. 

Ocracoke has been in a bubble for the past five months while we watched COVID cases pop up, multiply exponentially, and devastate other parts of the country. It's likely that we've had visitors come through with COVID (that's just math) and possible that some residents had mild cases it early on when we were staying home more. We'll never know. What we do know now is that we're not immune. 

We won't know until all the contacts have done their quarantining if community spread will reach others in our small island community. 

Please be careful. Avoid people if you can. Wear a mask. Stay 6 feet apart. Air hug. Don't linger. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face. Listen to experts. 

 

 

 

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