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Polk stood at 35 total cases all last week

POLK COUNTY—Of Polk County’s total 35 positive cases of COVID-19, 28 of those are presumed recovered.

County officials held its weekly stakeholder’s meeting on Friday and released the most recent data for the virus.

Polk County Health and Human Service Director Joshua Kennedy said the county has completed a total of 496 tests, with 35 individuals testing positive, 435 testing negative and 4 people have died. There were 6 tests still pending as of Friday.

The county is doing drive-thru testing bi-weekly by appointment for both sick and well individuals. So far, 81 drive-thru tests have been completed and the county’s message line has received 84 calls.

The county’s data includes that most of the positive cases in the county have been female, at 68.6 percent, compared to male positive cases of 31.4 percent.

Most of the positive cases have been age 65 or older, with more than 20 cases in that age range. The next is age 25-49 with between 5 and 10 cases and about 5 cases age 50-64.

Kennedy said Friday that North Carolina saw an increase in cases last week as well as hospitalizations for COVID-19. He also said along with the testing at the county drive-thru site, people can also seek testing at their local health provider.

Kennedy said the county is looking for additional testing.

“The more tests, the better off we will be,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy was asked if and when the county will offer antibody testing.

Kennedy said the county will do antibody testing once the testing becomes more perfective. He said the tests are still not sensitive enough to pick up the virus every singe time.

As of Monday, North Carolina had 29,263 laboratory-confirmed cases, with 898 deaths and 650 people hospitalized. The state has completed 421,908 tests, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.