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County adds another 24 cases of COVID last week

POLK COUNTY—Polk County added another 24 cases of COVID-19 last week and its percent positive rate was 7.8 percent. 

The Polk County Department of Health and Human Services released its weekly dashboard on Friday, noting that the previous week the dashboard was not released because of the holiday. 

The week prior’s percent positive rate was 5.4 percent according to the DHHS. 

The Polk County School Board has agreed to allow masks at school to be optional when the county’s percent positive rate is less than 5 percent for 2 consecutive weeks, which has not yet happened. 

The county has had a total of 2,397 cases of COVID-19, adding the 24 last week and another 20 the week prior. 

The county remains at 49 deaths, but has added 2 hospitalizations over the last 2 weeks, up from 96 hospitalizations to 98, according to Friday’s figures. 

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

As of Friday, 9,337 Polk County residents had at least 1 dose of the vaccine and 8,809 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 53.26 percent last 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 age 0-17. 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 most 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.