‘God Be With Us.’ KY Walmart worker apologizes to those he might have exposed to Covid-19.

Jason Thomas’ social media post on Thursday morning was to the point and raw with emotion.

“I have tested positive for COVID-19 if anyone has made close contact with me please be tested. Know that I’m very sorry and God be with us,” said Thomas, who lives in Knott County and works at Walmart in nearby Perry County.

“I’m a Christian man,” Thomas, 41, told the Herald-Leader Friday, explaining why he notified people that he had tested positive. As “a man of faith” Thomas said, it is his duty to protect “his fellow man and his brother.”

A few hours after Thomas went public with his positive test, the Kentucky River District Health Department, without identifying the patient, announced a positive case of COVID-19 in Knott County, which would ultimately be one of three for the county reported by Friday. Officials said the patient was a 41-year-old man and an employee of Walmart in Perry County.

A news release said people who visited that store between March 14 and April 9 may have been exposed. It said anyone with symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath should call their primary care provider and that public health officials were working to notify anyone who had come in contact with the patient..

Susan M. Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the health department, said Friday that additional details about the patient could not be provided because of medical privacy.

“We are continuing to see new cases of COVID-19 spread throughout our district. The health department staff is working to monitor these cases and notifying anyone that has been exposed,” said Scott Lockard, the director of the health department.

Lockard said because so many people in the area were worried, he posted a Facebook video saying that the risk was low for shoppers to contract the virus, but that shoppers and workers at the Walmart in Hazard at Perry County should self-monitor for symptoms.

Lockard said Walmart was not required to close but was taking precautions.

And he said the patient, who Lockard noted had posted about his condition on Facebook, was self-quarantining at home and doing well.

Thomas, meanwhile, said people in the community had been supportive. Thomas said he didn’t have significant symptoms and attributed his dry cough to seasonal allergies. He said he got tested for COVID-19 after he had the dry cough at work.

Thomas said he is feeling well during his quarantine.

Thomas’ wife, Bessie Thomas, a certified nursing assistant at Knott County Health & Rehabilitation Center, tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday, he said.

The Knott County Health & Rehabilitation Center said in a social media statement Thursday that it had no positive cases of COVID-19 and no symptomatic residents. The statement outlined that precautions that facility was taking.

The health department also provided an update on other positive cases in the region, including a new case reported in Knott County on Friday, that of a 46-year-old woman.

In addition to three cases in Knott, there were as of Friday two cases each in Leslie and Owsley, three in Perry, and one in Letcher, health department officials said.

This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 4:54 PM.