Alabama health officials confirmed the state’s first two cases of COVID-19, or the coronavirus, on Friday.
The Alabama Department of Public Health said a Montgomery County resident who traveled outside the state returned and was tested Thursday, according to Georgia news station WTVM. The results of that test came back positive about 8 a.m. Friday.
The second confirmed case in the state reportedly was in Jefferson County, according to news station WHNT News 10, citing State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris.
“We have been expecting this for some time now,” said Harris a week after the state lab began testing for the virus. “We have been waiting to identify our case and finally found our first case this morning.”
The department of health did not identify the patient’s age or other details due to privacy concerns. Harris said the person has other “chronic health problems” that put them at risk.
Epidemiologists are reaching out to the person “so that we can continue to do the contact tracing that we do and try to learn whether there are other contacts that need to be identified or investigated,” Harris said at the news conference.
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