ST CHARLES, Mo. – Despite testing positive for the novel coronavirus days earlier, an election judge supervisor broke quarantine, worked Election Day in a St. Louis suburb and has since died.
According to St. Charles County health officials, the unidentified supervisor received a positive COVID-19 test result Oct. 30 from a private lab and was instructed by the lab to quarantine for 14 days.
Instead, the supervisor worked the election at Blanchette Park Memorial Hall polling place about 25 miles northwest of St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
County health officials have confirmed neither the time nor official cause of death, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Health department officials have determined that the person may have been in contact with the nine other election workers at the polling place, and those nine have been advised to seek testing, The Hill reported.
Officials also said they do not anticipate that “close contacts will include any of 1,858 voters who were at the polling place Tuesday” because the supervisor’s job duties “do not typically include working closely with voters, handling iPads, distributing styluses or taking voter identification,” the outlet reported.
According to statewide Missouri data, 3,553 new COVID-19 cases and 18 deaths were reported Thursday, while 17,464 new cases and 78 new deaths have been confirmed in the past seven days.
More coronavirus pandemic coverage:
>> Coronavirus: CDC acknowledges airborne transmission of COVID-19
>> Is it COVID-19, flu, cold or allergies? What is causing you to feel sick this year
>> Coronavirus: CDC updates guidance for COVID-19 testing
>> Dangerous hand sanitizer list up to more than 150 products, FDA announces
>> Wash your masks: How to clean a cloth face covering
>> Fact check: Will masks lower the oxygen level, raise the carbon dioxide in your blood?
>> How to not let coronavirus pandemic fatigue set in, battle back if it does
