ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County’s coronavirus case count has risen to 51, including two employees of Perdue Farms.
Health and Human Services Director Dr. Tommy Jarrell confirmed Friday afternoon that two of the county’s four new cases within the past 24 hours are people who indicated they work at the chicken processing plant.
Jarrell said the Health Department is not yet sure whether the patients contracted the virus at work or out in the community.
Perdue makes the second industrial site in the county to have employees to test positive.
According to Jarrell, seven employees at Burlington Industries and one person who wasn’t an employee but worked at the plant also contracted COVID-19.
All of those patients are among the 30 currently under home isolation.
Jarrell said those who test positive will be out of work for an average of 14 days.
Earlier in the day, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services was reporting 48 cases, and increase of one from Thursday. However, Jarrell said the state pulls the numbers from all 100 counties as of 5:30 a.m. each day, with local nurses inputting information up until midnight
The three additional cases were reported to the Health Department between that time and the 2 p.m. update, he said.
Richmond was the 90th county to have a lab-confirmed case, which was announced on April 7.
Jarrell said that as of late Thursday, 587 Richmond County residents have been tested for COVID-19 since testing began March 12.
Five patients are currently hospitalized, two have died and 14 have recovered, according to the Health Department’s afternoon update.
The majority of patients (29) live in the Rockingham area, 19 have a Hamlet address, two live in or near Ellerbe and one is in Hoffman.
Statewide, out of 133,832 completed tests, 10,923 results have been positive.
