Burke County, as of Friday, still has no positive cases of COVID-19 but county officials, along with the city of Morganton and towns, declared a state of emergency as the threat of the novel virus looms.
Rebecca McLeod, director of Burke County Health Department, told the group of county, city and town leaders gathered on Friday that her department has sent off 47 test samples. Of those, 41 have been returned, which were all negative for COVID-19, she said. The state reported a total of 184 cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, with Catawba County reporting its first case on Friday. The state says 5,276 have been tested in North Carolina with zero reported deaths so far.
Drew Thomas, vice president of Blue Ridge Medical Group, told the group that Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge has tested four in-patients and the four tests were negative for COVID-19.