The Paris-Lamar County Health District is clarifying information released on Wednesday night regarding COVID-19 in Lamar County.
See below press release from Executive Director Gina Prestridge:
To clarify information disseminated last night regarding status of COVID-19 in Lamar County, as of 4/2/2020 Lamar County has 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19. As I have previously stated multiple times the past few weeks, we have had extremely limited ability to test anyone who is not feeling well and has symptoms of COVID-19.
With the inability to test people who have called the Health District stating they have fever, cough or possibly traveled to another town or state that has any positive COVID-19 cases, we have asked them to stay home for 14 days and monitor their symptoms. We have strongly recommended that they adhere to the 14 day self-quarantine and not go into the community for any reason until they are symptom free and have been home the full 14 days.
Without the ability to do mass testing, this self-quarantine strategy is put in place to help protect the citizens of Lamar County. Prevention is the best strategy at this point.
Could there be more than 3 cases in Lamar County at this point? Yes, but the number 175 does NOT represent the amount of Positive COVID-19 individuals in Lamar County. It represents individuals that the Paris-Lamar County Health District has asked to self-quarantine to help protect the community.
With that said, without the ability to test for the past few weeks we don’t know exactly what number of positive individuals we have at this point. We are optimistic that testing availability will increase soon. We want to do everything in our power to keep our positive cases as low as possible and the next few weeks are crucial in this COVID fight. This is why staying home if you do not feel well is imperative.
This virus has many faces to it, people can be very sick, mildly sick, and not sick at all.
We do know that even individuals not having symptoms can have COVID-19 and are extremely contagious. This is why social distancing is imperative at this point. I am urging everyone to please practice social distancing immediately.