Fifty five new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Lee County over the past week, according to a press release from local government.

New cases are now announced on Monday of each week, and the exact number of cases on each day since June 29 was not specified. But the county’s total number of patients who have tested positive stands at 861 (for comparison, the 55 cases announced Monday was about half of the 102 reported in the week prior). There have been 69 new recoveries since June 29, bringing the total to 636. There have been eight laboratory confirmed COVID deaths in Lee County.

The number of hospitalizations is unknown.

As of Monday, Lee County’s number of cases in Hispanic residents remained disproportionately high at 69 percent, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, although 216 of the cases reported were missing data on ethnicity. The state’s website as of 5:17 p.m. showed 871 cases, 10 more than the number reported by the county.

“These numbers are subject to change as data is verified through the contact tracing process; this will account for small variances between numbers at the local health department and the state dashboard,” reads the county’s press release.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 drive through testing will move forward on Tuesday at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center in Sanford from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. A second testing event is set for July 28. Those wishing to be tested are strongly encouraged to pre-register by calling (919) 542-4991 (ext. 1015 for English or ext. 1016 for Spanish). Calls will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.