Health department confirms 1st COVID-19 case in Martin County

covid

The Martin County Health Department confirmed Monday afternoon that there is a positive COVID-19 case in the county.

The test was performed at Frontier Medical’s Inez location last week. An 18-year-old woman was tested in Inez at a drive-thru clinic.

She had been living in Miami but decided to come home. Not long after that, she started getting sick with a fever, chills, and a cough.

By the time she came to the clinic, her symptoms were almost gone. However, they tested her for strep, flu, a viral panel and coronavirus.

The test came back positive for COVID-19 Saturday morning.

“This family has been patients of mine for 35 years. They are self-sufficient, very reliable. They’ve been pretty much holed up in their house since then and they go outside but their nearest neighbor is 500 feet away,” explained Dr. Don Chaffin M.D., who works for Frontier Medical Associates.

As of Monday evening, the patient does not have any symptoms.

Medical staff tested her sister for the virus Monday and are waiting on those results. They expect to get them back on Wednesday.

Health officials stress that the risk to the general public is low, but they are working with the state and CDC to contact everyone who may have been in contact with the infected individual.

The health department said they could not give more information right now about the patient due to medical privacy laws.

Sunday night, Governor Andy Beshear said there were more than 100 confirmed cases in the commonwealth. He added that more than 2,000 test have been conducted and the average age of positive COVID-19 cases is around 53.

If you have any questions about the coronavirus in Kentucky, call the state COVID-19 hotline at 1-800-722-5725. Beshear said the state hotline is getting about 2,400 calls a day.

You can also get the latest information, including things you can do to protect you and your family, by going to the state COVID-19 website here  or you can visit our information page here.