SALISBURY— The state’s weekly update on Tuesday showed a growing number of COVID-19 outbreaks in Rowan County’s congregate living facilities.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported 15 active outbreaks in Rowan County. Those outbreaks have produced 174 COVID-19 cases in nursing homes, residential care facilities and jails.

New outbreaks this week include Elmcroft of Salisbury, which has two staff cases, and Trinity Oaks Continuing Care Retirement Community, which has three staff cases. Both are residential care facilities.

The Rowan County Detention Center remains the largest active congregate living outbreak. There, cases identified during the current outbreak increased from 68 to 80 this week because of 12 new positives among inmates.

Other outbreaks still considered active include:

• Accordius Health at Salisbury, three staff cases

• Autumn Care of Salisbury, four staff cases

• Brightmoor Nursing Center, three staff cases

• Compass Healthcare and Rehab Rowan, which is been the largest nursing home outbreak. It has seen nine staff cases, 33 resident cases and four resident deaths.

• N.C. State Veterans Home, three staff cases

• The Laurels of Salisbury, one staff case, five resident cases and two resident deaths

• Trinity Oaks Nursing home, three staff cases and two resident cases

• Brookdale Salisbury, two staff cases

• Compass Assisted Living Rowan, three staff cases

• Deal Care Inn, three staff cases and three resident cases

• The Meadows of Rockwell Retirement Center, three staff cases and two resident cases

An outbreak is two or more positive cases in the same facility. Outbreaks are considered active once there is no longer evidence of transmission, which requires 28 days from the onset of symptoms in a symptomatic person or the test date for the most recent asymptomatic person, which ever is later.

At Rowan Helping Ministries, there have been nine resident positives and one staff positive during the current outbreak. Executive Director Kyna Grubb said the outbreak was the first time in 17 months there have been positives among Rowan Helping Ministries staff and residents. No volunteers tested positive.

Last week, Grubb said, the final person in the outbreak exited quarantine, but the outbreak could still be considered active until the 28-day period is over.

While it’s not counted among the Rowan County outbreaks, Piedmont Correctional Institute has 55 active cases, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.

The number of clusters in schools (five or more cases) remained unchanged in this week’s state update. Local school clusters are as follows:

• Landis Elementary, five staff cases and three students

• South Rowan High School, 13 student cases

• Corriher Lipe Middle School, four staff and three student cases

• Southeast Middle School, two staff and 11 student cases

• China Grove Elementary School, one staff and six student cases

• West Rowan High School, one staff and five student cases

• Isenberg Elementary School, one staff and five student cases

The number of positives identified as being part of a cluster is higher than the more than 300 for Rowan-Salisbury Schools. However, clusters require cases to be connected to one another and are generally indicative of in-school spread.