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Roberta Harverson started her nursing career as a CNA. After completing her LPN at AB-Tech, she began working at Autumn Care of Waynesville in 1992. In 1998, she became a Registered Nurse but continued to stay at Autumn Care, since it has always felt like home to her.
Mercy Urgent Care is now offering two types of COVID-19 testing, viral testing and antibody testing, at all eight of its urgent care facilities across Western North Carolina, including Waynesville. By offering both tests, Mercy hopes to improve tracking of the virus and slow its spread throughout the region.
Macon County Public Health has identified a COVID-19 cluster of positive cases in an area church located in Franklin.
In accordance with Executive Order 141, the ABC Commission will temporarily allow On-Premise ABC permit holders to include additional outdoor seating as part of their licensed premises if that space is approved by the appropriate local government entity.
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is reporting the state’s highest one-day number of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases with 1,107 cases reported.
By Sally Kestin
AVL Watchdog
It began with one employee falling ill from the coronavirus. By Friday morning, just 11 days later, 55 elderly and infirmed residents at the Aston Park Health Care Center in southwest Asheville and at least 30 of its staff had tested positive. Four residents had died, and one was hospitalized.
Macon County Public Health has identified three additional positive cases of COVID-19. All three are unrelated to the positive essential workers at an area business.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 22, that another Haywood County resident has tested positive for COVID-19. This is the 41st case recorded in the county. This individual is in isolation at home.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is reporting its first case of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 21, that seven more Haywood County residents have tested positive for COVID-19. These are the 33rd - 39th cases in the county. All are in isolation at home.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 20 that four more Haywood County residents have tested positive for COVID-19. These are the 29th – 32nd cases in the county. All are in isolation at home.
All Fontana Regional Library locations in Macon, Jackson, and Swain counties will provide curbside pickup service starting the week of Monday, May 18. Call your local library to ask about hours for that location.
On May 24, Macon County Public Health announced a cluster of cases centered around the Evangelical Ebenezer Church. As of press time on May 26, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services had reported 18 cases in Macon County, up from four cases May 15. One Macon resident died from the disease, reported April 6.
To the Editor:
I see these folks protesting, yelling and carrying weapons, as if a gun is an argument that trumps all else. I want to ask them what they are afraid of since volume and bravado are usually signs of fear. But, we live in a time of fear, a time when reasons and a search for truth are cast aside by dogmatism and belief in belief.
There is a favorite truism of some of these folks: You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. I think they don’t know how close they are to the truth and yet how very far away. If the thing you stand upon is a crumbling wobbly foundation then surely you will fall …. for everything.
My brother is a doctor, a pathologist. He is a man of science. He is not an alarmist. He does not speculate. When presented with a problem, he inhales the available literature in an honest attempt to advance his understanding. He understands that science is a continuing inquiry, a continuing search for facts. There are questions that science cannot answer. There are truths beyond the realm of science. But, there are facts derived by science that exist whether we believe them or not.
He wrote the following in an e-mail:
“In the matter of isolation: I actually think that we are entering the period when staying up on the mountain is more and more prudent. It is just a matter of mathematics; there are now a million or more known cumulative cases of Covid in the U.S. There have been studies done in New York (based on antibody testing, to demonstrate virus exposure in the past) suggesting that with the limited virus and testing that has been done in real time to find cases, there has been an underestimation of as much as 10:1 of the numbers of actually exposed infected people. Thus 1 million known infections translates to 10 million probable real infections, which is to say the 1 million known ones and the 9 million that were asymptomatic, had mild or atypical symptoms, or had real disease but never made it to hospital and either recovered or died without fanfare. It can be assumed that this bug is now circulating freely through the entire U.S. population and if the various troglodytes decide to allow things to reopen in the current state of the epidemic in the U.S. there will not only be a further major fiasco …”
The second clause of his final sentence was related to our personal discussion. I am in my late 60s and have a spate of auto-immune diseases that require regular infusions of biologics. That puts me at very high risk. Fortunately, I live on a mountain in rather isolated conditions. My brother was cautioning me on the necessity of maintaining that isolation.
We were discussing the very real possibility that we would not see each other again or see our mother or an uncle who we are close to. My mother is in her 90s. My uncle is just turning 80. Both have health issues which make them even further at risk. My brother lives in Canada so crossing the border to see either of them or me involves both risk and logistical problems.
Besides those family members I think of my friend Nelda. She is soon to be 76 and lives in Raleigh now. We became acquainted when she was my editor at the Mountain Xpress. Our relationship became much more than that. She is my emotional partner, the person in this world I truly love.
The idea that I may never see her in person again is devastating; made even worse by the prospect that the loss would extend to her two beautiful granddaughters. They call me Uncle Maniac and offer a light I never thought I would see since I never had children of my own.
Maybe this all sounds very melodramatic and maudlin, but I have every reason to want to not believe this virus is dangerous. The losses I face have nothing to do with money. They could be permanent, irreparable, without any hope of recovery or reconciliation. I do not relish the consequences of this enforced isolation. I do not want to accept the emotional, social, and, yes, economic devastation that this has wrought. But anger, ignoring facts and data, or concocting conspiracy theories accompanied by accusations of ulterior motivations won’t change the basic science and its implications.
Your AR-15 cannot shoot the virus or make it run away. Yelling incoherent slogans about freedom will not confer immunity. Denial, wishing for magic cures, or whistling past the graveyard with false bravado will accomplish nothing other than to make this much harder. Fear, misplaced belief, and anger will kill you with the same finality as any bullet.
Patience, steadiness, reliance on facts, and perhaps most of all basic human kindness, decency, and concern for each other are our most potent weapons.
Mark Jamison
Webster
To the Editor:
Come on guys, your MAGA hats won’t make me sick. Your bumper stickers can’t hurt me. Your open state rallies are ill advised, refusing to wear masks is downright dangerous.
I see you in the supermarket, Walmart, Lowe’s, wherever you go. I see you smirk at me as if to say “you’re a jerk.” Maybe I am, but I want to be a live jerk. My husband would not survive COVID-19. Therefore, I take this personally.
So, keep your hats, bumper stickers and rally if you want. I just want to keep my husband and others at risk safe.
The president refuses to wear a mask, he also said injecting disinfectant would cure the virus. You chose to follow his lead?
Ah, come on guys!
Kathy Lang
Waynesville
A new online course from Cullowhee-based Landmark Learning is teaching first aid skills for people who are sheltering in place.
Eddie Woodhouse has been named the new executive director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency in North Carolina, serving as an appointee of President Donald Trump.
The Pisgah National Forest has begun to reopen many trails and roads and partially lift restrictions for dispersed camping, and fire restrictions have been removed for both the Pisgah and the Nantahala.
The 2020 Festival of Peonies in Bloom is underway through the end of the month, allowing visitors to witness a field full of peonies in bloom.
A recently conserved piece of land in Macon County includes a federally significant marsh, a scenic view and a portion of the Nantahala River.
Myth: Celiac disease means you have an allergy to gluten.
This year, Tammy Ensley celebrated 15 years as coach of Pisgah’s varsity cheerleading team and her first year coaching the girls’ track team.
Some 15,000 much-needed surgical masks are now available for health care providers across the 18 counties of Western North Carolina, thanks to big efforts by a small group centered at Western Carolina University.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 18 that two more Haywood County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, marking the 27 and 28 cases in the county. The individuals are in isolation at home.
By Mark Barrett • AVL Watchdog | When the Rev. Tami Forte Logan learned that the Buncombe County Tourist Development Authority and allies won legislative approval to offer $5 million to small businesses crushed by the pandemic, she didn’t join the chorus of congratulations.
Mast General Store, based in Valle Crucis, North Carolina, announced on Wednesday, May 13, that its stores will re-open in phases, with the Waynesville location opening May 25.
The Town of Franklin recently announced that it has hired Franklin resident Bill Harrell to be its next police chief. When the position became vacant in February, the Town Council of Franklin appointed a search committee to seek a predecessor for former Chief, David Adams, who was hired as the police chief of Waynesville.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 15, that a 24th Haywood County resident has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The individual is in isolation at home.
A contractor for the N.C. Department of Transportation recently started construction to address slide and drainage issues in a problematic area of U.S. 74 in Swain County.
By Peter H. Lewis
AVL Watchdog
The biggest health crisis in a lifetime hit Asheville shortly after the one-year anniversary of the biggest upheaval in local healthcare: the $1.5 billion sale of the nonprofit Mission Health System to HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital management chain.
By Bob Scott • Guest Columnist | COVID-19 has given me the opportunity to sit and think. Not just daydream. I am not sure whether this is good or bad. This is one of those times.
I thought back to the time six months ago when everything was normal. A young lady and a young gentleman, both Franklin High School grads now finishing college, asked me to write them a letter of reference. I was honored to do so. I believe we will hear great triumphs from them as they experience life. FHS does that.
To the Editor:
Long lines, limited polling place hours, inconvenient polling locations, not getting time off work and the COVID-19 virus all make one of our most sacred rights — voting — a hurdle for many Americans.
All states need to offer no-excuse mail-in absentee voting to every eligible voter to ensure that everyone has the ability to vote.
Last week, a Texas state judge said that he’ll issue an order allowing all Texans to vote absentee due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, less than an hour after the attorney general’s office threatened criminal prosecution for groups recommending voters concerned about contracting the virus request absentee ballots (Texas is one of a number of states that requires voters to present an excuse in order to vote absentee). While the Texas order is certain to be appealed, just this past weekend, Gov. Cuomo of New York issued an executive order to lift all “mandatory excuses” to vote absentee in that state.
Many states are embracing voting reform. Virginia, for example, recently established automatic voter registration through the state Department of Motor Vehicles, meaning all eligible DMV customers will automatically be registered unless they opt out (at least a form is offered in North Carolina). Virginia also made Election Day a state holiday, removed the excuse requirement to vote absentee, allowed voters to permanently receive an absentee mail ballot in all future elections, extended the close of polling on Election Day an additional hour and established alternative in-person voting methods such as curbside voting.
Some states have already acted quickly to allow residents to vote at home by sending ballots or absentee ballot applications by mail to all their citizens but in 15 states, voters still need to submit an excuse to be able to vote at home. Just this month, absentee voting in Wisconsin went from 5 to 71 percent. Our own state is among only five others to have no-excuse absentee voting, joined by Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Florida. Kentucky Gov. Beshear’s recent executive order says that all voters “should use mail-in voting.” Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a bill to conduct Utah’s June 30 primaries entirely by mail and cancel in-person voting, except for those with disabilities. All 53 North Dakota counties say they will conduct the state’s June 9 primaries entirely by mail, following an executive order from Republican Gov. Doug Burgum.
We need to act now to ensure that all voters can safely participate in our elections this November. If we act together, we can win the funding and reforms we need to protect our vote.
Ralph Andrew
Waynesville
To the Editor:
Some people call it common sense, others call it critical thinking or logic, and it is so essential to human kind that the survival of the species depends on it.
I am befuddled about those who don’t understand it, practice it or agree with it, as if you can argue about whether humankind should live or die.
The high visibility of anti-intellectual, anti-scientific attitudes can be traced right back to President Trump, who proudly flaunts his disdain for learning.
I want society to open back up as much as anyone, but I don’t want it at the expense of mega death.
The logic is pretty straight-forward: test, use PPE, practice social distancing, get the numbers down, THEN open up cautiously. Like, you put your socks on before your shoes. What is so hard about that, folks?
Obama had America prepared for such a pandemic, but Trump dismantled that program so he could rid the government of the ‘taint’ of one of our best leaders (who happens to be fairly adept at logic.) And then he gave the extra cash from a hollowed out government to his rich friends with a tax break. Yes, the bestest, most beautiful businessman.
The time to gear up production of PPEs and research an effective test and vaccine was in February or March. The administration had been warned several months earlier.
Where has he been, what has he done with his time, beside jeering at prepared people as perpetrating a hoax and abdicating all responsibility?
He tells states they are on their own, then intercepts their shipments and doles them out to red states.
This is not the behavior of a leader.
Caryl Brt
Waynesville
To the Editor:
I am not writing about a political issue but a health issue. I am a senior citizen with a heart condition placing me in a high-risk category, so am extremely concerned about staying COVID-19 free.
Therefore it is discouraging to visit grocery stores and see many people without masks. I wear mine to protect you and your family in case I have the virus and don’t show any symptoms and don’t know I have it. I would hope you would care about protecting me and my family from the possibility that you may have it. My life and that of others may depend on it. I have many friends who fear going to the stores for this reason. One friend has an extremely high-risk young child and is afraid she will bring it back home to him.
Some stores do have special hours for high-risk shoppers and the opportunity to order online and pick up, but that is limiting and shoppers not wearing masks may also shop during those special hours so the masked shoppers are still exposed to those unmasked shoppers. I heard this quote in several places: “having some people wear masks and some not is like having a peeing section in the swimming pool.”
A solution to this could be to establish morning mask-only shopping for a few hours each day, leaving the vast majority of shopping time available to mask-optional shoppers.
I was at Haywood Appliances in Clyde the other day and was pleased to note that no one was allowed in without a mask and some were provided. I’m also hearing that most, if not all, airlines are requiring all passengers to wear one. I also heard the CEO of Walmart state that one of his main concerns was customers who did not follow CDC guidelines for wearing masks and maintaining social distance from others.
If you are also concerned, please share this idea with the managers of local stores you use. We’re all in this together, so let’s help each other stay safe and stop the spread.
Nancy Copeland
Waynesville
The Asian giant hornet has yet to be detected in North Carolina, but the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is asking residents to keep an eye out and report sightings of the pest.
7 ways you can S T R E T C H (or SUBSTITUTE for) ground beef or pork:
Haywood Regional Medical Center (HRMC) today announced that Rod Harkleroad, CEO of HRMC, will step down from his role, effective June 5. Harkleroad, who has been with HRMC since 2016, has been named CEO for Frye Regional Medical Center, a Duke LifePoint facility in Hickory. Chris Fensterle, who has been serving as interim CEO at FRMC, will join HRMC as interim CEO in early June, and a national search for a permanent leader has been initiated.
The Blood Connection, a local nonprofit, community blood center is offering COVID-19 antibody testing to all donors at no cost. The test, which will provide blood donors with a positive or negative result, will be included in the normal panel of testing that is done to all blood that is collected by the organization.
The Macon County Sheriff’s Office has released a free mobile smartphone app allowing the public access to a multitude of vital information along with the ability to communicate with law enforcement and find out about MCSO’s various services and divisions.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 11 that three more Haywood County residents have tested positive for COVID-19. The individuals are in isolation at home.
To assist N.C. Division of Motor Vehicle customers and partners in dealing with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a provision included in the COVID-19 bill signed into law today by Governor Cooper grants a five-month extension of the expiration date on more than two dozen DMV credentials.
By Nick Peters
The main floor of Manna FoodBank’s warehouse in Asheville is a beehive of activity as scores of staff and volunteers pack, load and wrap food for distribution. Boxes, pallets, and forklifts still abound, but the vibe has changed.
Adam Perry has worked for Haywood County Schools since 1996. Currently, he is the Job Coach at Tuscola High School where he works with students who are pursuing the occupational course of study.
“We will be closing until further notice. God bless us all.” This is but one of many messages posted to storefronts across Western North Carolina. For Luxury Therapeutics in Franklin, that kind of sign simply wasn’t an option.
It will be May in December for members of Western Carolina University’s spring graduating class of 2020 who were originally scheduled to participate in commencement ceremonies this month until the events were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Haywood County Public Health received notice May 6 that a 19th Haywood County resident has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The individual is in isolation at home. This individual was exposed eight days prior to symptom onset.
After a 30-year career with the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Sgt. Gene Williamson retired in 2014, but he didn’t stay retired long. In 2015, he joined the Haywood County Sheriff's Office and has been there ever since.
Have you walked through an Ingles store and noticed the brown and white gluten-free tags on items?
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is issuing a warning about a scam in which private online websites falsely claim to sell N.C. fishing licenses.
