By JOE ASHER

joe.asher@middlesboronews.com

 

Members of the Middlesboro City Council and the Mayor could find themselves quarantined after possibly being exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

Middlesboro Mayor Rick Nelson confirmed a person who tested positive for COVID-19 was in attendance at the panel’s meeting on Tuesday.

“Apparently Tuesday night we had a positive case, a gentlemen came down with Covid,” Nelson said. “We have gotten some calls from the health department, apparently they want to put all the folks that were in that room under a 14-day quarantine.”

Nelson pointed out that everybody in the room followed the CDC guidelines.

“We want to be safe, and we believe that we were safe,” Nelson said.  “We did follow the CDC guidelines pretty much to the letter. So, we think we should not have to do the quarantine.  We don’t think we’re better than anyone else, we just feel that we followed the guidelines, the social distancing and the masks. I think we’re on good solid ground, and I’m hoping the health department will give us a reprieve on that. ”

Nelson mentioned he and the council have not known about the situation long.