According to the Bladen County Health Department’s latest update there are now 150 active COVID-19 (coronavirus) confirmed positive cases in the county. Five Bladen County citizens are currently hospitalized due to the virus. The total of COVID-19 cases reported is 321 with 169 presumed recovered and two related deaths of elderly aged citizens.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) the health department suggests everyone work together.
Increased Bladen cases are linked to community transmission and residential facilities in the “other” category, according to Dr. Teresa (Terri) Duncan, Bladen County Health and Human Services Director.
The local health department asks citizens to please get tested if you meet any one of the following guidelines:
- Anyone with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.
- Close contacts of known positive cases, regardless of symptoms.
- Populations with a higher risk of exposure or a higher risk of severe disease if they become infected if they believe they may have been exposed to COVID-19, whether or not they have symptoms.
- People who live in or have regular contact with high-risk settings (e.g., long-term care facility, homeless shelter, correctional facility, migrant farmworker camp)
- Historically marginalized populations
- Frontline and essential workers (grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, child care workers, construction sites, processing plants, etc.) in settings where social distancing is difficult to maintain
- People who are at high risk of severe illness (e.g. people over 65 years of age, people of any age with underlying health conditions
People who have attended protests, rallies, or other mass gatherings could have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or could have exposed others. Testing should be considered for people who attended such events, particularly if they were in crowds or other situations where they couldn’t practice effective social distancing.
Bladen County COVID-19 Testing sites:
Elizabethtown-Baldwin Branch Missionary Baptist Church and Goshen Medical Center: free “drive-through only” COVID-19 Testing 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on Friday, June 26, 2020. Must register to be tested.
Registration forms are available 9:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. at WBLA 1440 da Branch Radio Station www.wblaradio.com; 512 Peanut Road,
Elizabethtown, NC. Individuals have until June 23rd to obtain the form. Testing will be done at the church’s location: 4047 NC 242 Highway South, Elizabethtown, NC. Rev. Dr. Louie Boykin is the pastor.
A drive-thru testing site is operating in the Walmart parking lot located at 1347 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown, NC on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 7:00 am- 9:00 am. The site test anyone who meets CDC, state and local guidelines on who should be tested, including first responders, health care providers, and others with symptoms of COVID-19, and those in high-risk groups without symptoms. Those interested in being tested need to visit www.DoINeedaCOVID19test.com to see if eligible for testing and to make an appointment.
CommWell Health (1-910-567-7114 or 1-877-WELL-ALL (935-5255) test in Tar Heel, Monday-Friday, times vary.
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