SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– The Greene County Health Department has tested four people for COVID-19, the illness caused by novel-coronavirus. Five more people were being monitored for symptoms as of March 6, 2020.

So far, the county says there have been zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Southwest Missouri.

The four people tested for COVID-19 all suffered from fever, cough, and shortness of breath; symptoms often linked to COVID-19. Those tests have all come back negative.

The five being monitored are recent returns from mainland China, the Health Department told reporters on Friday. Those five monitored patients report symptom updates to Health Department staff twice a day.

Those five people will remain at home for 14 days. With no symptoms present, the Health Department says, there’s no need to test them.

Originally Streamed at 10:56 a.m. on March 6th, 2020

Clay Goddard, Greene County Health Director, said testing and isolating people during public health scares is nothing new.

“It brings me back to ebola,” he said. “We had several people that came through [back then] that we isolated as well.”

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