EXETER — State health officials said Monday that one of the four patients infected with an identical strain of hepatitis C at Exeter Hospital is an employee of the hospital.

Dr. Jose Montero, director of the state’s Division of Public Health Services, confirmed that an employee was involved in the recent hepatitis C outbreak, but the hospital said it’s prohibited from releasing further information about the worker or other patients for privacy reasons.

The hospital also said Monday that it has either completed testing or scheduled testing for approximately 500 of the 651 individuals who were patients in the cardiac catheterization lab between August and May and may have been exposed. All 651 individuals have been sent a letter notifying urging them to be tested and all have received a personal telephone call from the hospital.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab, which is the area where officials believe the exposure to the blood-borne illness may have occurred, has been cleared by the state to reopen for full and normal operations beginning Tuesday at 8 a.m. The lab was closed on May 25 but reopened on an emergency basis Friday.

The state and hospital are conducting a joint investigation to determine the cause of the outbreak, which is the first of its kind at a medical facility in New Hampshire.

Email jschreiber@newstote.com