GRANT COUNTY - There were 120 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Grant County as of Sunday evening, with three new cases reported in the Quincy area, two in the Mattawa area and one in Moses Lake, according to the Grant County Health District.

Of those cases, which include two people who have since died and at least 28 that have recovered, 90 cases are still active, according to the health district. There are also 17 “probable” cases, which includes people with symptoms of the virus who have had close contact with a person known to have been sickened with COVID-19.

Six people sickened with the novel coronavirus are currently hospitalized, while at least three people have recovered from their previous hospitalization. Twenty-eight people have recovered enough to no longer be placed under quarantine, the health district reported Friday. Recovery numbers are updated once a week.

Quincy remains the epicenter of the outbreak in the county, with 47 confirmed cases total. The Mattawa area is reporting 25 confirmed cases, while Moses Lake has 21 confirmed cases.

Ephrata is reporting twelve confirmed cases, Royal City is reporting six, Soap Lake and Warden are each reporting four, and the Grant County portion of the Othello area is reporting a single case. Neither the Coulee City area or the Grand Coulee/Electric City area have reported any cases of the virus.

In addition to tests that have come back positive, 1013 have come back negative. There are an estimated 142 tests that are still pending results, according to the health district.

Around 10.6 percent of completed tests have come back positive, down from 13.6 percent at the end of March and nearing the statewide average, which was 8.6 percent last Tuesday according to the state Department of Health. Public health officials have previously expressed concern about Grant County’s outsized rate of positive tests.

In an interview last week, health district Administrator Theresa Adkinson said that the declining rate of tests coming back positive is a good sign. There are many factors that could be contributing to that decrease, but Adkinson said that it could be a sign that the virus is slowing.

“We are encouraged by what we’ve seen with the percentage of positive cases to the number of tested, so we’re starting to see that number slowly coming down,” Adkinson said. “We’re hopeful that we are two-three weeks away from what Seattle and the Puget Sound are starting to see.”

Those communities, among the first to be hit by the pandemic, have started to flatten the curve, with the governor’s office last week returning hundreds of ventilators as the state's hospital systems look better prepared to handle the diminished threat.

But it’s too early to claim victory, Atkinson warns. After weeks of the rate of positive tests declining, it ticked back up again Sunday. Adkinson said she’s concerned about the possibility of a spike in transmissions two weeks after Easter weekend if families and communities chose to ignore warnings from public health officials.

“While I want to provide (the public) a ray of hope, I think we’re very cautious with that message right now,” Adkinson said.