By Natalie Anderson
natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — More than two dozen new cases were added to the county’s COVID-19 data hub on Monday, with nearly 400 of the total cases considered currently active.

A total of 3,349 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county since March, with 11.88%, or 398, of those cases currently active. Additionally, 85.12% of all reported cases have recovered. A total of 19 Rowan County residents are being hospitalized for COVID-19.

While no deaths were reported to the county on Monday, Rowan County remains fifth in the state for most deaths as it reached 100 over the weekend. All four counties ahead of Rowan have larger populations, including Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake counties.

The average age among the deaths remains at 80, while the average age among all cases is 43.7.

The 3,349 total cases includes eight active outbreaks at local congregate care facilities. The site of the latest outbreak is the Piedmont Correctional Institution. County data currently show 26 cases there.

But on Monday, a spokesperson from North Carolina Department of Public Safety contradicted those numbers, confirming that 20 inmates at the Piedmont Correctional Institution currently have active cases of COVID-19 and 10 staff members are out of work due to COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, 22 staff members have tested positive, and 12 of them have returned to work after being presumed recovered by state health officials, the spokesperson said.

The prison now says there have been 52 total COVID-19 positives tied to the prison.

Once an inmate tests positive, he or she is placed in medical isolation for close observation and twice-daily temperature checks. The spokesperson added that testing continues to be conducted at the facility when inmates exhibit symptoms, as well as among cohorted housing units where positive cases are quarantined. All housing units at the prisons are cohorted, or kept in groups, to prevent the mixing of inmates within one housing unit and other housing units.

County data currently show 52 cases and seven deaths at Autumn Care; 82 cases and eight deaths at Trinity Oaks Health and Rehab; 41 cases and seven deaths at Accordius Health; 31 cases and nine deaths at Liberty Commons; four cases at Compass Health; six cases at the Citadel; and two cases at Big Elm Rehabilitation and Living Center in Kannapolis.

Across the state, 208,248 cases have been reported after nearly 3 million completed tests, for a percent positive rate of 5.3%. The state currently presumes 184,422 of those cases, or 89%, have recovered. A total of 897 people are being hospitalized, and 3,445 have died.

Also on Monday, state health officials announced that as metrics continue to stabilize, indoor visitation is now allowed in nursing homes if the facility has had no positive COVID-19 cases within the last 14 days and as long as the nursing home is within a county that has a percent positive rate less than 10%.

“Our progress in testing, infection control and slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our communities allows us to move forward with safe indoor visitation in accordance with federal guidance,” said NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen.

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.