Cherokee County reports first COVID-19 related death

PRESS RELEASE – The Cherokee County Health Department is reporting the first COVID-19 associated death by a Cherokee County resident. The individual was in their late 80s and died from complications associated with COVID-19 on March 31, 2020. To protect the privacy of the family no further information about this patient will be released by the Cherokee County Health Department.

Our prayers are with the family and loved ones during this time. This serves as an unfortunate reminder of the seriousness that surrounds COVID-19 and the potential impacts to those high-risk individuals. We as a community must do our part to help stop the spread of the virus by staying at home and practicing social distancing combined with other protective measures when necessary to go out into the public.

The CDC has updated who is at high risk for severe illness. People at high risk include anyone who:

• Is 65 years of age or older
• Lives in a nursing home or long-term care facility
• Has a high-risk condition that includes:
  • chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
  • heart disease with complications
  • compromised immune system
  • severe obesity – body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher
  • other underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, such as diabetes, renal failure or liver disease

Because COVID-19 is most commonly spread through respiratory droplets, individuals should take the same measures that health care providers recommend to prevent the spread of the flu and other viruses, including washing your hands, avoiding touching your face, staying home if you are sick and covering coughs and sneezes with your elbow. It is important to make sure the information you are getting about COVID-19 is coming directly from reliable sources like the Cherokee County Health Department, CDC, and NCDHHS. For more information, please visit
the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus and NCDHHS’ website at www.ncdhhs.gov/coronavirus, which will also include future positive COVID-19 test results in North Carolina.

Cherokee County Health Department regularly updates our Facebook page with accurate and current information regarding COVID-19, we encourage the public to check our Facebook page for up-to-date information.

Symptoms for COVID-19 are fever, cough, and other lower respiratory illness (shortness of breath). If you are having a mild respiratory illness, isolate yourself from others until the following criteria are met:
• At least 3 days (72 hours) have passed since recovery defined as resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement in respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath), and
• At least 7 days have passed since symptoms first appeared.

If your illness becomes severe requiring urgent or emergent health care, call and inform your health care provider or emergency services of your symptoms prior to arrival.

If you have questions, you may call the Health Department at 828-837-7486 during regular office hours which are Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM.