ALPENA — Officials with District Health Department No. 4 told the their board it’s just “a matter of time” before Northeast Michigan sees a positive case of the coronavirus.

While no one in the region had tested positive as of Tuesday afternoon, DHD No. 4 Administrative Health Officer Denise Bryan told her board on Tuesday the Health Department has so far received one negative test result of the 26 tests that have been submitted to the state.

Eighteen of those tests were from Alpena County, five tests were from Presque Isle County, and three tests were from Cheboygan County.

Medical Director Josh Meyerson said there has now been a presumptive positive case of coronavirus in Leelanau County and another person in isolation in Otsego County, which he said is the first case that “hits close to home.”

Meyerson, who also works for the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, said there are now three cases in Charlevoix County in which he’s been involved. Meyerson said he expects more cases to be reported in Charlevoix and expects to have cases in Northeast Michigan, as well.

“Everything that we are doing is not to stop the spread cases from coming, because they’re going to come,” Meyerson said. “Everything we are doing is to tamper down — to flatten the curve — so that, when we have cases, we have good hospitals and good doctors who can take care of them if there’s not too many. The whole idea here is to manage it so that we aren’t being overwhelmed.”

The Health Department transitioned to “full incident command” on Monday, which means it is only providing essential services at this time.