An organizer of a group pushing to reopen North Carolina revealed she's tested positive for COVID-19

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An organizer of a group pushing to reopen North Carolina revealed she's tested positive for COVID-19
Protesters from a grassroots organization called REOPEN NC demonstrate against the North Carolina coronavirus lockdown at a parking lot adjacent to the North Carolina State Legislature in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 14, 2020.Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
  • Audrey Whitlock, who is an administrator in ReOpen NC's Facebook group, tested positive for COVID-19 in early April.
  • Over the weekend she told the 70,000 members of the North Carolina group that she tested positive and that she had been self-isolating.
  • Whitlock did not attend any ReOpen events after testing positive.
  • The group has held a number of rallies in Raleigh, North Carolina, calling for the state's stay-at-home orders to be lifted.
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A leading member of a grassroots group in North Carolina calling on the state to lift its coronavirus restrictions has said she tested positive for COVID-19.

Audrey Whitlock, who is an administrator in ReOpen NC's Facebook group, told the page's 70,000 members that she was an "asymptomatic COVID-19-positive patient," according to screenshots shared by CBS 17.

According to CBS17, Whitlock believed she had the virus back in January and went to get an antibody test at the beginning of April. She tested negative for antibodies but tested positive for COVID-19.

"As an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient (quarantine ends 4/26) another concern I have is the treatment of COVID patients as it relates to other communicable diseases," Whitlock said in the post. "I have been forced to quarantine in my home for two weeks."

Whitlock told news station WFAE that she self quarantined under the guidance of her county's health department.

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"I have not attended any events for ReOpen NC," she told the outlet.

ReOpen NC held two rallies in Raleigh while Whitlock was in quarantine, in which members called on Governor Roy Cooper to lift the state's stay-at-home order. More than 100 people attended one of the rallies.

Cooper, meanwhile has extended stay-at-home orders until May 8 to help prevent the spread of the disease.

The state has closed schools, dine-in restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses as part of its stay-at-home order.

"It is clear that we are flattening the curve," Cooper said in a news conference Thursday, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. "But our state is not ready to lift restrictions yet. We need more time to slow the spread of the virus before we can ease the social restrictions."

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North Carolina has had 9,142 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 306 people have died from the virus.

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