The Mercer County Health Department (MCHD) today announced the 34th resident from Mercer County to test positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus). The 34th case is a male in his 30s. Of the 34 positive cases that Mercer County has had since testing began, as of this date, five cases are isolating at home and one case is hospitalized. All other cases have completed their isolation period set forth by IDPH and are no longer being actively followed by MCHD. Due to Federal privacy restrictions, release of any additional information on this case is prohibited. Public Health Officials are identifying and contacting all close contacts of this case.
All active cases and close contacts are being monitored by the Mercer County Health Department Communicable Disease staff. For COVID-19, a close contact is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated. The Mercer County Health Department will reach out to all known close contacts of each positive case.