FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Iredell County Health Department reported the 15th death in the county attributed to COVID-19 on Tuesday. Health officials also reported an outbreak of COVID-19 at a long-term care facility in Statesville.

Citing patient confidentiality, local health officials do not release any identifying information about the people whose deaths are attributed to COVID-19.

Six people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county have died in the past three weeks, as the number of laboratory confirmed cases in the county has increased from 746 to 1,392.

Health officials reported 50 new cases on Tuesday.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iredell remained at 25, and another 407 people who have tested positive are isolating at home.

Meanwhile, 945 people who have tested positive are now presumed recovered.

COVID-19 outbreak reported at long-term care facility in Statesville

Also on Tuesday, the Health Department received notice of a COVID-19 outbreak at Brookdale Peachtree II-Memory Care, a long-term care facility in Statesville. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services considers two or more cases in a long-term care facility to be an outbreak.

Two staff members and two patients have tested positive.

The facility has worked with the Iredell County Health Department to have all residents and employees tested for COVID-19 as a precautionary measure. 

The Iredell County Health Department is working with this facility to conduct contact tracing to determine who else may have been exposed to COVID-19. The facility continues to implement strict visitor restrictions and infection control precautions to help prevent any further spread of COVID-19.

Testing of all staff and residents was recommended by the health department after an individual working in the facility tested positive. Other than the initial case, residents and staff who have tested positive have been without symptoms.