From WRIL -
UPDATE: After publishing this story, we received information that the employee received a follow up test which came back negative. We once again contacted Rebecca Rains who replied with the following: "I do know that the first test was positive and the repeat test was negative. However, the Dept for Public Health does not count the repeat as a negative. Once someone has a positive, it remains a positive."
That information is something that would have changed the way we reported this incident, but we have left the original story to provide details on how it was handled by everyone involved.
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After being contacted by several people from the Barbourville area about a possible COVID-19 case at a local nursing home, we contacted Knox County Health Department Director Rebecca Rains for a statement.
Rebecca tells WRIL that Barbourville Health and Rehabilitation Center has had one employee who tested positive when they did their mass testing recently.
The employee resides in Harlan County, so Harlan County Health Department would have conducted that employee’s contact tracing for her contacts within the community. The facility would have been in charge of contact tracing inside of the facility - who she worked with and potential affected residents.
She goes on to state that Barbourville Health and Rehab notified the health department immediately of the positive as well as the Department for Public Health and the OIG. They have also made all of the resident‘a families and all employees aware.
Rebecca says she "feels as though they handled everything appropriately."
We have reached out to Barbourville Health and Rehabilitation Center Director Bobbie Mills for a statement.