SALISBURY — Active COVID-19 cases spiked to new highs this week as county health officials reported the highest and fourth-highest daily increases in positives.

The highest daily increase in COVID-19 cases (100) was reported Thursday, and the fourth-highest increase (75) came two days earlier. Local health officials reported 52 new cases on Friday.

There have been a total of 5,514 positive tests reported in Rowan County after 69,606 tests. With 4,432 recoveries and 131 deaths, there were 951 active cases on Friday. There also were 22 Rowan County residents hospitalized, 73 of 106 COVID-19 beds and one of 61 ventilators in use in Rowan County hospitals.

Statewide on Friday, there were 3,834 new positives reported, 354,514 total cases, 1780 people currently hospitalized, 5,210 deaths and 5.17 million completed tests.

On its website, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services separates hospitalizations by region, with Rowan County falling in the Triad Healthcare Preparedness Coalition Region. That region — which also includes the likes of Iredell, Davie, Davidson, Forsyth and Guilford counties — has the most COVID-19 patients hospitalized (508) of any region. Of those, 78 were admitted within the previous 24 hours.

The Triad region also tops all others in inpatients beds in use and intensive care beds in use. The Metrolina region, which includes Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Stanly and other counties, is using more ventilators than any other.

Because of the holiday weekend, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services did not provide a Friday update on new outbreaks and clusters. Statistics from Rowan County health officials show cases at local congregate living facilities grew from 781 to 843 this week. There are still outbreaks considered active at Accordius Health (43 total cases), Autumn Care (14 total cases), the N.C. State Veterans Home (three cases), the Laurels (55 total cases), Trinity Oaks Skilled Nursing (94 total cases), Compasses Assisted Senior Living (four total cases) and Meadows of Rockwell.

An active outbreak doesn’t necessarily mean there are still active cases at the facility. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services says an outbreak can be declared over if it’s been 28 days from the onset of symptoms in the last symptomatic person or the first date of specimen collection from the most recent asymptomatic person, whichever is later.

For the third time during the pandemic, the Citadel has seen an outbreak of COVID-19, with one positive employee and one resident. The facility on Julian Road produced the largest outbreak in the state in the spring.