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Polk gives data on its first 17 cases

COLUMBUS—Polk County officials are releasing more and more information about the Coronavirus, including a recent timeline of positive cases.

The county had its first case on March 26 and since has accumulated 19 positive cases as of Tuesday afternoon.

The first and second case came on consecutive days, with the cases spread out over days. Polk County went from April 10, when it had 9 cases, until April 20 for its 10^th case and has added 9 cases since then. The last cases came over the weekend, when the county went from 12 cases last Friday to 17 cases by Monday morning. The county had another 2 cases on Tuesday.

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

There are still no reported deaths in the county, and 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 has 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 case 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 Tuesday, North Carolina had 9,568 laboratory-confirmed cases, with 342 deaths. The state has completed 112,752 tests, with 463 people currently hospitalized. The virus has been confirmed in 96 of the state’s 100 counties.

Buncombe County had 53 cases and 4 deaths as of Tuesday; Henderson County had 155 cases and 16 deaths as of Tuesday; Rutherford County had 120 cases and 4 deaths as of Tuesday and Transylvania County had 7 cases and zero deaths as of Tuesday, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.