KINGWOOD, W.Va. – Myrtle Beach travel now accounts for 41 of the 66 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Preston County. Health department administrator V.J. Davis says all those infected are doing as well as possible.
“Definitely none of those people have ended up in the hospital,” Davis said,”Some of them have been more sick than ever.”
On June 16 Preston County reported a total of 19 confirmed positives, on July 1 the DHHR website reports that number has increased to 66 and more than 48 percent of positive test results are in the 10 to 19-year old age group.
“Seventeen, 18, 19, 20 where they’re probably not going to have as many symptoms,” Davis said,” It’s not going to hit them as hard as it would an older person.”
Last week, Davis says they were contact tracing more than 40 people and that number dropped to 18, but that still means a lot of work.
“When we say 18 active cases, that means we have 18 people that have been either probables or confirmed positive,” Davis said,”There are a lot of other people associated with that 18.’
There are reports of groups in Myrtle Beach now and others planning trips in the future and Davis hopes those people understand the virus is everywhere.
“Our hope is that even if people are they saw what happened with this outbreak and being more more careful while they’re there and hopefully being more careful when they came back,” Davis said,”But, I have nothing to support that other than a hunch.”