UNC Health recently had a group of employees at the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill test positive for COVID-19.

A spokesperson for the health care system shared a statement with Chapelboro on Thursday confirming multiple employees have tested positive. It said the system has tested hundreds of its more than 13,000 employees at the UNC Health location.

“We’ve had an aggressive containment strategy for months,” read the statement, “following CDC guidance to ensure they remain in isolation, receive the appropriate treatment and monitoring, and are cleared before they return to work. We also are aggressively testing any staff with a broad range of symptoms so we can do an extensive contact investigation if they are positive.”

The health care system’s statement said it is also identifying anyone who might have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, whether because of travel, household contracts or occupational contacts, to quarantine out of the workforce for the duration of the virus’ incubation period.

There is no indication if the employees contracted the virus through actions while working at UNC Health or through community transmission.

“Coronavirus is everywhere,” said the system’s statement. “But UNC Health uses a robust identification and isolation approach that is second to none.”

As of Wednesday morning, Orange County reported 161 positive cases among county residents and two deaths.

Note: 97.9 The Hill has been Chapel Hill and Orange County’s daily source for free local news since 1953. Please consider making a donation to continue supporting important local journalism like this.

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