Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley - The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iron County has now doubled in less than a week, as Iron County health department officials announced three new cases linked to the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday.
The three cases bring the county's total to 20, with six cases considered recovered. The county health department's announcement Friday of one new case brought the county's total up to 10. Since then, the health department announced seven new cases Monday and three new cases Tuesday.
The county's lone death remains the first positive case, announced March 26.
Iron County officials said the contract tracing process for the three cases announced Tuesday is being completed, according to the department's Facebook post announcing the cases.
"We rely on accurate information from the positive case patient to proceed with contact tracing. When an individual is identified as having COVID-19, (the health department) works to determine all the people that a person may have had close contact with for more than a few minutes," health officials said in a recent news release. "Close contact is defined as within 6 feet of someone, with or without a mask, for at least 15 minutes. (The health department) contacts all those people keeping the identity of the positive case confidential, asks about symptoms and requires isolation or quarantine for each person."
The department will publicly release information on potential exposure sites in situations where there's enough risk of exposure to others that the individual's contact-tracing process is enough to determine everyone the person may have come in contact with. The department has released several Hurley businesses in recent days where they've confirmed infected people were present at certain times.
Health officials continue to urge people to take precautions against the spread of the virus - including wearing masks or face coverings, practicing social distancing, frequent and thorough hand washing and staying home when sick.
Gogebic County
In Gogebic County, the Western U.P. Health Department said Tuesday there have been 15 COVID-19 cases recorded in the county, with four individuals recovered, and one death.
Houghton County has recorded 26 of the 49 total COVID-19 cases in the five-county health department district, with Baraga County at five, Keweenaw County at two and Ontonagon County at one.