Resurgent COVID closes school, bank; quarantines 22

COVID-19 came back with a vengeance Tuesday as classes for Marion’s pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students were canceled, 14 students and 8 staff members were ordered quarantined, Central National Bank was forced to close its lobby, and the county tied a record with its largest two-day increase in cases.

The school was closed after an employee was one of four new positive cases Monday. Five more were reported Tuesday, raising the county’s total number of cases to 119.

The new cases Tuesday were three women in the 50s, a man in his 50, and a teenage girl. A man and a woman in their 20s, a man in his 30s, and a man in his 70s were reported as new cases Monday.

Since Wednesday, the county recorded 13 new cases of COVID-19 — the latest seven-day increase in cases in more than a month.

Two women, one in her 20s and one in her 50s, were reported Friday.

A woman in her 60s who tested positive was confirmed Thursday, as well as a probable case with a man in his 50s.

The county’s infection rate is 9.9 cases per 1,000 people — just short of one case per every 100 people in the county. See Wednesday's print edition for additional information.