UNC shared an Alert Carolina message with the community on Tuesday saying a member of the campus community has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The Alert Carolina message says the individual is a university employee who has tested presumptively positive and is self-isolating in their home. The release said the individual is following guidelines established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the state health department.
The university said people who are identified as a close contact with the employee will be notified by officials and will be given guidance of the next steps.
Orange County officials confirmed that the employee does not live in Orange County. Officials did not say whether the test was completed by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Alert Carolina Informational Message: UNC-Chapel Hill community member tests presumptively positive for COVID-19. See https://t.co/sLY3gKR2mo.
— UNC-Chapel Hill (@UNC) March 17, 2020
Just to be clear- there are still no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Orange County, NC. The UNC-Chapel Hill employee lives in another county. Keep up with social distancing so we can flatten the curve. pic.twitter.com/VL5iaXuHgL
— Orange County Health (@OrangeHealthNC) March 18, 2020
The news comes after UNC Health began administering a new test for COVID-19 at its locations on Monday, including the main UNC Hospitals campus in Chapel Hill. The test was developed at the UNC Medical Center McLendon Clinical Laboratories in Chapel Hill.
For additional information about the steps UNC is taking to protect the health and safety of the campus community, visit the university’s dedicated web page for the virus.
Not very reassuring news… “Close” contacts are being notified… what about me… did I stand behind him at the supermarket or post office… did he talk to the person that talked to me later… did he handle the gas pump just before I filled up? There aren’t that many degrees of separation in a small town like Chapel Hill.