The case of the phantom positive COVID-19 case appears to be attributed to a non-resident according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
ADH Regional Director Jeremy Courtney stated this morning that he could confirm that the positive case reported yesterday afternoon was indeed a positive test, but it has since been verified that the person tested was a non-resident of Montgomery County.
Thursday, April 23, the ADH Dashboard Map was reporting a positive case in Montgomery County. The positive test result became visible on the map shortly after Governor Asa Hutchinson’s daily press conference.
However, the light blue color which indicated a positive case soon shifted back to white as the positive case report was rescinded.
Rumors regarding what had happened swept across social media as local residents tried to figure out what happened. Some were blaming the wavering result on out of state residents who may have purchased land recently in the county. Another popular reason involved Fulton County reporting their first positive case of COVID-19. The positive case in Fulton County led some to speculate that they may have gotten the counties confused while inputting information to the dashboard.
Courtney stated that he didn’t have much on what happened other than the fact that the positive test was verified to belong to a non-resident of Montgomery County. He did say that sometimes when a test comes back positive the patient will be contacted to verify place of residence. However, he couldn’t verify that is what happened.
Courtney spoke highly of Montgomery County residents efforts to remain free of COVID-19. He pointed out that Montgomery County is now one of only three counties in Arkansas without a positive case of the virus.
The ADH Dashboard map updates throughout the day to reflect the most current COVID-19 information for Arkansas and the counties within the state. The map can be found by clicking this link. https://adem.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f533ac8a8b6040e5896b05b47b17a647
