Identified cases of COVID-19 in Warren County rose to more than 20 over the last week. Public health officials say they expect to see more as testing becomes more available.

The local case count stood at 22 as of Wednesday morning, according to the Warren County Health Department. Six individuals are also classified as recovered, meaning they meet CDC criteria for release from self-isolation. Thus far, there have been no deaths.

Warren County Public Health Nurse Stacey White said the spread of COVID-19 is slowed by area residents adopting recommended health practices.

“The more people who practice social distancing, wear a mask or cloth face covering in public, and wash hands and sanitize, the more effective those strategies are for our community as a whole,” White said. To be most effective, those safeguards need to be taken by the majority of the community, she said.

One of the main challenges for the area is a lack of supplies for COVID-19 tests. White said that limits how much health officials really know about the spread of the disease.

“It is incredibly difficult to get approved for testing right now due to a recent shortage of testing supplies. We anticipate case (numbers) to continue to rise as testing becomes more available,” White said.

Testing for residents here is done mostly through private providers, including SSM and Mercy.

“We get a lot of calls from people who are symptomatic, and many who have had contact with positive cases, and yet they still do not get approved for testing,” White continued. “Hopefully in the coming weeks that will improve.”

In the meantime, the health department is asking people to act as if everyone else might have the disease and every surface might be contaminated.

White said the severity of local COVID-19 cases has ranged from mild to serious illness requiring hospitalization. Some of the illnesses have taken an extended period of time to recover from, she said.

According to mapping data provided through the health department, the most cases in Warren County are concentrated in the 63390 zip code, which includes Wright City and Innsbrook. There were 12 positive cases there as of Tuesday.

Six cases have been identified in the central 63383 zip code that includes Warrenton, while more rural areas of the county remain at zero to two cases.

White said without more testing, it’s impossible to say if those numbers reflect the real distribution of COVID-19 in the area.

The health department has previously expressed that there are likely active cases in Warren County that haven’t been identified, especially among people who might not have symptoms.

Whenever a positive case is identified, the health department investigates that person’s contacts to try to identify any other positive cases. However, COVID-19 is now community-spread, and sometimes no positive contact can be identified, White said.