The confirmed case was a result of international travel. The patient, is female in her 60s with limited community contact, and currently quarantined and isolated. The epidemiologist at Health Department will be investigating this case with additional information to follow.

“We have started to identified close contacts of the patient, who may have been exposed, and will take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Lisa Dick, Health Administrator of Brownwood / Brown County Health Department said.

Brown County Health Department has set up two hotline numbers for questions. If an individual has symptoms similar to that of Coronavirus please call 325.642.2635 or 325.430.5933. Initially, on March 18th, 2019 Calls will be taken til 10:00 pm. Beginning March 19th calls will be taken from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. A health department employee will answer questions and if necessary perform a phone health screening over the phone should you need higher level of care they will direct you. The purpose of phone screenings is to reduce the congestion of our medical facilities and allow social distancing. Please be patient if you are not directly connected, we will answer calls in the order they are received. If you are planning on going to a physician please call before arrival.

The City of Brownwood, Brownwood/Brown County Health Department, Brownwood Regional Medical Center, Texas Department of State and Health Services, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are closely working together to provide the community with the best health practices.

“While we hoped this moment wouldn’t come, it was something we have prepared for,” Mayor Haynes said in a statement. “At this point, we do not have a case of community spread. It’s important that we all work together to limit the spread of this event.”

Mayor Stephen Haynes said the Brownwood / Brown County Health Department has been preparing for local cases.

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At this time no additional information is available regarding the patient. The City of Brownwood has set up www.brownwoodtexas.gov/health as an online portal with up to date information regarding the confirmed COVID-19 confirmed case, and additional preventative measures. Additional information will be posted to www.brownwoodtexas.gov/health as it becomes available. 

The novel coronavirus now known as COVID-19 was recently detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and is causing an outbreak of respiratory illness. Its symptoms are similar to the flu. A minor case would leave someone with sneezing, coughing, fever and aches. More extreme cases are similar to pneumonia. The current count of cases of infection with COVID-19 in the United States is available on CDC’s webpage: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html