SALISBURY — Rowan County on Wednesday reported four new COVID-19 deaths, making six this week.

All four deaths reported Wednesday occurred inside of local nursing homes or congregate living facilities, according to local statistics. Two deaths reported on Tuesday were both non-congregate facility deaths.

In Rowan County, 138 deaths have been outside of congregate living facilities and 114 inside of them. Of the 252 deaths recorded throughout the pandemic, 80 have occurred in 2021.

Since Sunday, the county has reported 398 new positives, with 117 on Wednesday.

The county also reported 92 recoveries, which is one of the higher daily totals this year, but the number of active cases continued to increase because recoveries were lower than the total of new positives and deaths.

The number of people vaccinated also improved. Through Tuesday, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services says 7,928 Rowan Countians have received a first dose and 1,402 have completed their vaccine series. Not included in the numbers are people who received their second dose Wednesday as part of the county’s weekly drive-thru.

The Rowan County Health Department will have a drive-thru clinic with about 300 doses for people receiving their first shot on Thursday. All appointments are taken for that event, which will be at the West End Plaza. Appointments for vaccines are made available at 10 a.m. on Mondays for the Thursday of the same week. Visit rowancountync.gov/1671/First-Dose-Clinics to reserve an appointment.

In other local COVID-19 statistics:

• There have been 4,167 COVID-19 cases reported in 2021, and 12,594 since the beginning of the pandemic.

• There have been 1,317 cases in congregate living facilities since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 24 from the start of the week.

• At least 113,131 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the county. Negative tests are added to the total once per week on Thursdays.

• Deaths at congregate living facilities include nine at Accordius Health, 15 at Autumn Care, three at Bethamy Retirement, seven at Compass Assisted Living, five at Elmcroft, 16 at Liberty Commons, two at the Meadows of Rockwell, 20 at the N.C. State Veterans Home, 21 at the Citadel, six at the Laurels and 10 at Trinity Oaks.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported 12,079 new positives on Wednesday, which represented an upward spike after days of declining cases. That number, however, represented thousands of positive tests by FastMed Urgent Care clinics that were not previously reported.

The delayed reporting did not affect the date patients were notified or treatment, a news release said.

NCDHHS says 2,706 people are hospitalized in the state, 9,578 are dead after testing positive and 776,307 tests have been positive after 9.01 million completed tests.