TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (WAND) - Three people are under quarantine starting Friday after a volunteer worker at the Taylorville Chilifest tested positive for COVID-19, Christ-Mont EMA officials said. 

A press release said the Christian County Health Department completed contact tracing efforts following the Greater Taylorville Chamber of Commerce Chilifest, after which the EMA had said an employee with Capital City Cornhole tested positive for COVID-19, and determined three people need to be quarantined. Each person has been notified. 

The EMA mentioned a quick response and cooperation from the Chamber in helping determine who needed to be quarantined.

EMA officials have been critical of the Chamber for putting on Chilifest in 2020, saying they were told four times they did not have the blessing to go ahead and have Chilifest. They said no evidence was seen of organizers enforcing social distancing and masks. The Chamber argued it was never told by health officials that it had to be "enforcers" of those protocols. 

The EMA had called the COVID-19 case that came from Chilifest a "super spreader event." in the Friday release, its leaders offered more information for attendees about their virus risk. 

"If you were recently at the Chilifest and have not been contacted by public health, your exposure time and distance to this positive case, especially if you were following IDPH guidelines of mask-wearing, hand washing/sanitizing and social distancing would not meet the exposure guidelines of less than six feet for more than fifteen cumulative minutes," the release said. "As always, however, you should monitor your health because COVID is a virus that is active throughout our communities. If you should begin to feel ill or have a concern, contact your physician for further guidance.

"Chris-Mont EMA and the Local Health Departments encourage social distancing, wearing of masks to protect others when social distancing is not possible or around others who are not part of your household (even at family/friend functions), frequent hand washing/sanitizing, the cleaning of common touch areas regularly and staying home if you are ill. We have the ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 by following these simple steps."

The EMA sent another press release on Friday morning explaining more about the Chilifest situation. Leaders said they do not believe there was any malicious intent on anyone's part with the COVID-19 case, but did stress the majority of attendees didn't seem to be self-regulating virus precautions. The Chamber had provided hand sanitizer and masks for public use. 

See their full comments in a PDF document attached to this story.