(TNS) - A one percentage point increase in the positive rate for local COVID-19 testing appeared in county reports Thursday.

For the first time since May 20, four percent of test results returned in a single day were positive, with 142 new cases tallied and five new COVID-linked deaths announced.

Though a single day's number does not mean much, it came alongside reports from two large local medical providers that said they are seeing higher COVID activity in some locations than they were previously.

Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the county's epidemiology unit, said Thursday evening that while seeing numbers increase can be telling, it's difficult to draw conclusions without a much longer trend line. There can be a fair amount of variability in ratio of positive to negative test results, he said, depending on who is doing the testing. Tests performed by health providers on patients with symptoms tend to return more positives than those conducted at broad screening operations.

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