An apparent jump Monday in COVID-19 cases in Cole County can be attributed to testing results that weren't reported over the holiday weekend, according to local health officials.
The Cole County Health Department reported Monday that a total of 91 cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed in the county since March, with 16 active cases. The total showed an increase of 12 cases since Thursday's 79, when the Health Department last updated its public COVID-19 information before Independence Day.
"The increase is because of the four days worth of testing results that came in over the weekend," said Health Department Director Kristi Campbell. "Those four days of results weren't added until today, and we posted on our site last week that we wouldn't be updating the totals between Thursday night and Monday night."
None of the patients with active cases have been hospitalized, and those who tested positive are self-quarantining at their homes, health officials said.
Seventy-three Cole County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered, and two have died.
"We've found that 76 percent of those who have tested positive got the virus from where they traveled or through contact with a person known to have tested positive for COVID," Campbell said.
"As we do more testing, we will have more positive cases," she added. "But the rate of those testing positive is what we keep an eye on. Since the beginning, the positivity rate has been at about 1 percent, and it continues to stay at that level."
As of Monday night Cole County's COVID-19 positivity rate was 1.07 percent.