Galveston Co. resident quarantined in Austin after presumptive positive COVID-19
GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas - Galveston County Health District (GCHD) today confirmed its first presumptive positive case of Coronavirus COVID-19 in a Galveston County resident, who is currently self-quarantined in Austin.
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The patient is a woman ranging in age 30-35 years old. She was tested in Travis County, but confirmation results are still pending from the CDC. She is one of two cases announced in Austin early Friday.
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This case is directly linked to Montgomery County Public Health’s presumptive positive case involving a man in his 40s.
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She started having symptoms of cough and fever on March 5.
She then traveled to Austin, where she had been staying. Then after several days, sought medical care. On March 11, she was tested by the Travis County Health Department and was found to be positive.
She had fairly limited time in Galveston County, but officials are still doing contact tracing and asking people who crossed paths with her to self-isolate.
For confidentiality purposes, GCHD is not releasing any additional identifying information about the woman.
“This is a rapidly evolving situation. We understand this presumptive positive case may concern our community, but at this time there is no evidence of community spread,” said Dr. Philip Keiser, Galveston County local health authority. “The immediate risk for Galveston County residents remains low. We have worked very hard planning and preparing for this moment. There are steps in place to safeguard the community.”
GCHD is conducting an epidemiological investigation and is working to quickly identify close contacts of the woman. Those may include family, friends, co-workers and other potential contacts.