Washington County has had two more people die from COVID-19 this week, bringing the total to 15 for the county. Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski provided a local COVID-19 update at Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting. She said in the last week Washington County has added 173 confirmed cases of the virus, and a total of 373 have been added in the past 14 days. The local 14-day positivity rate was 18.8% on Tuesday.

In addition, she said there are 17 Washington County residents hospitalized, nearly double from last week.

Pettit-Majewski urges people to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, “You can wear a mask when you leave your home. You can wear a mask when you’re hanging out with people who are not in your immediate family, when you’re shopping, when you’re running your errands. Maintain social distance from others who don’t live in your household. Wash your hands; don’t touch your face, all of the things that we’ve been preaching from March. As careful as you were in March and April that’s how careful we need you to be because right now we are seeing significant increases in our numbers.”

Washington County has had 1,326 confirmed cases and so far 667 people have recovered, for a recovery rate of 50.3%.