Harvey County is reporting a third death tied to COVID-19.

The latest patient was a man in his 70’s who was previously hospitalized, and passed away Saturday.

Previous deaths were a woman in her 30’s who died of leukemia, but had COVID-19. The other patient was a woman in her 50’s whose blood work showed a presumptive positive case, though a nasal swab came back negative.

Harvey County is also confirming 14 new COVID cases, bringing the active case count to 41.

The latest patients include five women in their 20’s, though only one case was tied to another known case of the virus. Several male patients, between 20 and 60-years-old are close contacts of other patients. Two younger women and a young man were also found to have the virus but it is not known where they picked it up.

All of the latest patients are in home isolation, except for one man who has met recovery criteria.

With a continuing rise in new cases, Harvey County Commissioners voted to put a mask order in place. This goes into effect Wednesday, July 15 and appears to mirror Governor Kelly’s mask order.

“Our active cases have continued to rise the past two weeks, community spread was identified, and hospitalizations increased in the region,” said Harvey County Commission Chair Randy Hague. “If we’re going to keep our local businesses from having to shut down again, if we’re going to give our schools a chance to reopen, we needed to reassess and take additional steps to help slow the spread of COVID-19.”

There are no penalties included in this mask order.

Reno County commissioners have voted to rescind an earlier order to override Governor Laura Kelly’s executive order requiring masks in public places.  The decision means that masks will be required in Reno County.