As COVID-19 case counts continue to climb, Warren County now has the distinction of having the highest test percent positivity in the state.

The Department of Health announced an additional 51 cases of COVID-19 in Warren County on Tuesday.

That’s on the heels of a couple quiet days — 10 on Dec. 6 and eight on Dec. 4 — but more in line with Dec. 3 when 49 new cases were reported and Dec. 2 with 53.

The county’s totals since the start of the pandemic now stand at 4,310 confirmed cases, 975 probable cases and 165 deaths. No deaths have been reported according to Department of Health data, since Nov. 30.

The state’s COVID-19 early warning monitoring system notes that Warren County’s 34.6 percent PCR positivity rate is the highest in the state.

That system currently compares the weeks of Nov. 19-25 to Nov. 26-Dec. 2.

“A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet,” according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The percent positive is a critical measure because it gives us an indication how widespread infection is in the area where the testing is occurring — and whether levels of testing are keeping up with levels of disease transmission.”

State data does show a 46 case decline week over week but an increase in the average daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, which went up 1.7.

Warren — at 3 percent — is 10th out of the state’s 67 counties for the percent of hospital emergency room visits that are due to COVID-like illness. The highest county is Adams at 5.5 percent.