A village-based employee of the Norton Sound Healthcare Corporation has tested positive for COVID-19 through the corporation’s mandatory routine employee testing. The positive test result came back to the Nome hospital last night [SUN].

NSHC is not reporting the employee’s home community but did say that the patient is not currently experiencing symptoms, nor have they recently traveled outside of the community. 

NSHC officials write that the patient is isolating while Public Health Nursing and the State Section of Epidemiology do contact tracing.

NSHC will prioritize COVID-19 testing for those identified as “close contacts” to the patient by Public Health Nursing.

Another NSHC employee tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday. That employee works in Nome and hospital leaders do not think there is any connection between that case and the newest one reported today [MON].

There are now nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 being reported in the Norton Sound region, four of those confirmed cases have been NSHC employees detected through routine testing. According to the NSHC daily press release, the region currently has four active cases and five are recovered.

Image at Top: NSHC COVID DriveThru Tent. Photo: courtesy of NSHC