First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go to the family of the individual who died from the Coronavirus today in Brunswick County.  The individual passed away before the test results came back, but the tests confirmed they were positive for Coronavirus.  It is a frightening reminder of the severity of this disease and the crisis our county faces.

This situation is far more serious than our local numbers suggest.  With only 24 confirmed positive cases, and one death, it is easy to dismiss it and resume your normal life.  If you stay off of social media, typically eat at home, and avoid the news, you may not even know there is a pandemic right now.  

I do not know the logistics behind the lower testing numbers in our county.  It is troubling, though, when you see someone die before even getting the test results back and the current number of tests (729 tests administered) climbing at a very slow rate.  We should be testing more, not less.  This is an undisputable statement given that we know this disease can spread through asymptomatic people and that early detection is key to containment.  

The individual that died today had no known travel and no known contact with someone with coronavirus leading this to be a case of community spread.  If testing remains low and we don’t do more to combat this crisis, there will be more unnecessary deaths.  It is best to assume you have the virus (and are just asymptomatic) and stay away from people out of protecting them.  In doing so, you will protect yourself and others. 

The county resources are likely limited and their ability to contain it has likely passed.  Not testing does not change this fact, it just hides it temporarily.  It is our responsibilities as citizens to avoid risky situations and exercise good common sense and hygiene.  I do not think passing blame to anybody does any good, but those who fail to take this seriously are jeopardizing the integrity of our fight against Covid-19.  I hope they wake up before it is too late.