CONROE _ Montgomery County officials delivered the news to Harris County and Houston officials early Tuesday evening that one of their residents who tested presumptively positive for COVID-19 also attended last month’s Houston Rodeo cookoff, officials said.

The Houston tie to Montgomery County’s first known case was not disclosed until Wednesday afternoon when Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo would be closed to prevent “community spread” amid large gatherings. Montgomery County officials informed Houston at around 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, about two hours before a packed crowd gathered for a K-pop concert, said Jason Millsap, chief of staff to County Judge Mark Keogh.

Montgomery County officials declined to mention the patient’s visit to Houston during a morning news briefing because it was out of their jurisdiction, Millsap said.

A lack of disclosure surrounding the COVID-19 case has left some, including a state lawmaker, worried. During the news conference, officials at the Montgomery County Public Health District said the patient, a man in his 40s, had no recent travel history outside Texas but left out his visit to the famed rodeo.

Millsap said the man tested positive for COVID-19 around 4 p.m. and was well enough to retrace where he had been the past two weeks. The rodeo grounds were the most significant location, Millsap said, while other places he had been in Montgomery County were determined to be “low risk” areas. He was around his family, extended family and around co-workers at an unidentified workplace.

Turner, at a reporter’s pressing, disclosed that the man had attended the rodeo. Turner also expanded on the Montgomery County man’s prognosis — and the stark reality that the illness is spreading — as city and health officials moved to cancel the Houston Rodeo. The lack of information shared at the first news conference in Conroe was frustrating to state Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands), who attended the meeting but was unaware of the patient’s Houston ties until hours later on his drive back to Austin.

“I’m frustrated,” Toth said in a phone call. “I get the whole thing about wanting to make sure we don’t violate their HIPPA rules, but I think the lack of frank reporting (from public officials) of honest information is going to cause more doubt when we speak later on what we know to be true.”

The scarcity of information was also troubling to Shirley Tilton as she went with her husband, James, to see his doctor at the Houston Healthcare facility in Conroe. He has stage four cancer, she said.

“I feel nervous being in a hospital because they’re not telling us which hospital he’s at,” Tilton said. “They’re wasting our time by telling us nothing.”

Visitors to the hospital on Texas 336 Loop are facing stricter rules amid the growing pandemic. Anyone who enters the hospital is required to disclose if they have a fever or other symptoms of a lower respiratory illness, have had close contact with a person infected with COVID-19 in the last two weeks or if they have traveled to an “affected geographic area.”

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The unidentified patient has been hospitalized since Tuesday and those in close contact with him in the northwest part of the county are being monitored, said Melissa Miller, of the Montgomery County Hospital District. The presumptive positive is awaiting additional confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said during the news conference.

Miller would not say how long the man has been symptomatic or elaborate, the condition of his health or where he was receiving treatment. She said it was not yet known how he contracted the illness or where. The majority of COVID-19 cases have been in the Houston area and are linked to a Nile river cruise in Egypt. The first COVID-19 diagnosis in the Houston area involved a Fort Bend County man who went on the Nile trek. The case was announced on March 4, about four days after the cookoff ended.

The new case also prompted Montgomery ISD Superintendent Beau Rees to cancel school Thursday and Friday for a deep cleaning ahead of spring break.

The county is currently monitoring 21 people, some of whom had contact with the patient. Since Feb. 7, 39 people have been monitored and 14 have been under investigation. Of those tested, Miller said eight are still pending results.

The man’s employer was made aware of his diagnosis, Miller said.