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No information yet on how many have recovered

POLK COUNTY—Polk County has 20 cases of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, but there is not yet any information of how many of those cases have recovered.

The county has zero deaths from the virus.

The first case of the virus was reported in the county on March 26 with the 20^th case announced Wednesday morning.

The county has increased its cases by 8 since last Friday. Last Friday the county had 12 cases, and announced it had 17 cases Monday morning, then 19 Tuesday morning and its 20^th case Wednesday.

The first and second case came on consecutive days, with the next cases spread out over days. Polk County went from April 10, when it had 9 cases, until April 20 for its 10^th case.

The county has recently opened up a drive-through testing site at the former jail in Columbus on Thursdays by appointment only.

Nearby Landrum has 1 case, while Campobello has 4 cases.

Polk County officials say they are unable to say how many of its 19 cases have recovered, as it is waiting on guidance from the Center for Disease Control as to what full recovery is defined.

The county is also not yet releasing where the positive patients live.

Polk County officials said this week that the state of North Carolina has stated they will begin releasing information about locations of positive cases soon. Officials said they are not sure if that will be by zip code or other locating factors. The information to be released will also include numbers at long-term care facilities, with county officials saying they will release that information as soon as it is received.

Hospitalization numbers are also not being released at this time.

“At this time we are unable to release hospitalization counts due to the significantly small number of cases combined with other public information would potentially be able to reveal an individual’s identity and violate their confidentiality, or hospital’s privacy policies,” states the Polk County Health Director. “In addition, cases may have unique health issues that could have resulted in their hospitalization prior to being positive or after they were hospitalized.”

As of Wednesday, North Carolina had 9,948 laboratory-confirmed cases, with 354 deaths. The state has completed 118,440 tests, with 551 people currently hospitalized. The virus has been confirmed in 98 of the state’s 100 counties.

Buncombe County had 43 cases and 4 deaths as of Wednesday; Henderson County had 159 cases and 18 deaths as of Wednesday; Rutherford County had 123 cases and 4 deaths as of Wednesday and Transylvania County had 7 cases and zero deaths as of Wednesday, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.