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Polk adds 14 cases; percent positive is 7.7 percent

POLK COUNTY—Polk County added the lowest amount of cases of COVID-19 this week that it has in a while, but its percent positive was 7.7 percent. 

The county also added another death this week from the virus, with 48 Polk residents now having died from COVID-19. 

The Polk County Department of Health and Human Services released its COVID dashboard on Friday, with the county adding 14 new cases this week. That figure is down from the last several weeks, which has remained in the 20s. 

Polk County’s new cases peaked in September, at one time adding as many as 101 new cases in 1 week. 

Last week’s percent positive rate was 5.4 percent, which was up from the last couple of weeks. The last 2 prior weeks the county’s percent positive rates have been 4.7 and 4.4 percent, according to the DHHS. 

The county has now had a total of 2,334 cases of COVID-19 since March 2020. 

As of Friday, there have been 95 people who have been hospitalized from the virus, which was the same as last week. 

The county’s percent of its population that is vaccinated remained at 43 percent this week. 

As of Friday, 9,353 Polk County residents had at least 1 dose of the vaccine and 8,888 Polk County residents are fully vaccinated, according to the county’s latest data. 

Polk County’s positive cases overall have been mostly in females at 53.34 percent this week. 

Most of the county’s cases have been in people age 25-49, followed by people age 50-64; people age 65-74 and people age0-17. The least cases have been in people age 75 and above and 18-24. 

Vaccines are free for anyone and are now being administered to everyone age 12 and older in North Carolina. 

Booster shots are now also available to many qualified people. 

To schedule an appointment with the county people can call the Polk County COVID message line at 828-722-5086. More information is also available on a special COVID-19 tab located at polknc.org. 

Local pharmacies are also now giving vaccines for the virus as well as for flu and pneumonia.