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Patients are only counted once if test positive multiple times

POLK COUNTY—Polk County Public Health officials released a different format for reporting COVID-19 cases, which included a note that if a person tests positive multiple times, that person is only counted once in the total case count.

Polk County as of Friday had a total of 128 positive cases, with 98 if those cases presumed recovered. With 5 deaths in the county, that means that there are currently 25 patients with the virus currently.

County officials also noted last week that patients who relocate outside of the county will no longer show up in Polk County’s positive county.

The county also began showing cumulative hospitalizations, which as of Friday were at 12.

Current outbreaks were listed at 2 as of Friday, with cumulative positive cases from outbreaks at 5 and zero deaths.

Clusters in the county were listed at zero as of Friday.

County officials said that an outbreak is defined as 2 or more cases in a group living facility. A cluster is defined as 5 or more cases in a child care center or school. For more information on how an outbreak or cluster is defined, people can visit the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website.

Polk County has completed 2,838 tests with 128 total positives and 98 presumed recovered, which gives the county a 5.3 percent positive. Total negative tests have been 2,548 with 113 tests pending as of Friday.

Most of the positive tests have been in people age 65 and older at almost 50 of the cases. The next highest age group has been people aged 25-49 at more than 30 of the positive cases and more than 20 of the cases have been in people aged 50-64, according to county data.

The county has also had about 10 positive cases in the 0-17 age range and more than 10 positives in the 18-24 age range.

More women than men have contracted the virus in Polk County, with 57.03 percent being female and 42.97 percent being male.