A member of Isle of Wight County’s Board of Supervisors has tested positive for COVID-19.

On Jan. 3, William McCarty, who represents the county’s Newport District, was on day nine of a 10-day quarantine following direct exposure to an infected individual on Dec. 25, which was set to end Jan. 4.

“On Sunday Evening [Jan. 3], I lost my ability to taste and smell and the sinus infection (that I was diagnosed with after 2 negative tests) seemed to be worse,” McCarty stated in a public Facebook post Jan. 5. “I then went to the doctor and was tested again and this time, I am now positive for COVID-19.”

He has since begun a new 10-day quarantine period.

“Thankfully, I have not been out in the community, to church services, nor close to any persons outside my home,” McCarty wrote. “Even in the house I have kept a distance from all and took the exposure that we had and the quarantine seriously. I wanted to post this so no rumors start flying around as they can do when you wear multiple hats in our community.”

As a result of his diagnosis, McCarty, who in addition to serving on the Board of Supervisors is lead pastor of Healing Waters Worship Center in Carrollton, said he won’t be doing any in-person meetings or counseling of any kind in person, but will be able to set up meetings and sessions on the videoconferencing platform Zoom should those be necessitated.

“The church offices are resuming regular hours,” McCarty said. “Thanks for your prayers for us!”

By unanimous vote of the Board, he was allowed to participate by phone in the supervisors’ organizational work session the morning of Jan. 7.

On Jan. 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted patients and health care providers to the risk of false results, particularly false negative results, with the Curative SARS-CoV-2 test — a real-time PCR test used to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus by collecting a throat or nasal swab or oral fluid specimen.

McCarty’s post didn’t specify whether this was the test he’d been given that had resulted in his testing negative twice. The supervisor was unable to be reached by phone or email by press deadline.

The FDA website does, however, warn that “a negative result does not exclude the possibility of COVID-19.” An August 2020 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine further states that the probability of receiving a false negative test the first day after exposure is 100%. This decreases to 67% on day four and 20% on day eight.