COVID cases and variants are on the increase in Saline County.

According to the Saline County Health Department, there have been 17 new COVID cases in Saline County since Monday. There are 80 cases of the virus currently active.

No additional deaths due to COVID has been reported in the past week. Salina Regional Health Center reported three people require hospitalization for COVID. While medical privacy laws prevent the release of identifying information, teens and young adults account for the bulk of the new and active cases in the county, while most of the people requiring hospitalization are in their 40s, 50s, or 60s.

The agency released the following information:

• Variants detected in 38 of 163 samples sequenced.
• Positive cases continue to increase in people under 40.
• Local hospitalized patients are primarily non-senior citizens.
• Percent of the vaccinated population slowly increasing.

At least 21,614 people have been vaccinated in Saline County. This accounts for approximately 39.9 percent of the total population and an increase of just .5 percent (or an additional 227 residents) over the previous week.

They are aware of a reporting issue with federal providers like CVS, the VA, and others who are not reporting their vaccination numbers at the state level. They are awaiting a fix on the federal level.