The Scurry County Health Department reported just after 3 p.m. today that the county has three new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to seven since the pandemic began.
“Scurry County has three new cases,” stated a post on the SCHD’s Facebook page. “We have a female age range 35-45 years of age. Second case is a male between the ages of 55-65 years of age. Third case is another female age range 15-25 years of age. Please remember to wash your hands and remember your social distancing.”
The three new cases come after two new cases were reported Wednesday — a female in the range 55-65 years of age and a female in the range 35-45 years of age. Scurry County’s first two cases were reported April 8 and April 10, and involved a male between 50 and 60 years of age, and a female between 50 and 60 years of age.
The first two people to contract the virus locally are reportedly recovered from the illness.
County Judge Dan Hicks reported during a video statement on Facebook that one of the cases involves an employee at the Scurry County Law Enforcement Center.
"Due to the confined space and close quarters necessarily associated with a jail setting, Scurry County will be conducting large scale testing of both employees and inmates over the next 48-96 hours," Hicks said. "Those tests will be administered by both Cogdell Hospital as well as a State Testing Team and will begin as soon as possible, consistent with all necessary precautions and availability of testing staff and teams. We expect the initial wave of tests to be in the range of 140 individuals, appriximately, with further tests to follow, if warranted."
The press release went on to note that the resources of the sheriff's office, judge's office, Health Department and Emergency Management Team will be stretched thin over the next few days.
"Therefore, these offices will be unavailable to field additional individual questions for the next few days," Hicks said.