FAIRMONT — The number of positive COVID-19 cases in Martin County has held steady at eight for the third day in a row, suggesting preventative measures such as social distancing may be doing what they are intended to do.

Tim Langer, public health sanitarian for Martin and Faribault counties, commented Tuesday on the standstill.

“We remained at eight, and that is good,” he said. “That can change, but I see that as a good sign.”

Langer also shared an update from the Minnesota Department of Health.

“Yesterday in the state of Minnesota, we had 235 positive cases and one death,” he said. “As of today, we increased to 262 [positive cases], which in my mind is good because it’s not as high as I thought it would be. We’re still at one death in the state, and 21 folks requiring hospitalization, and 15 are hospitalized as of today.

“Then we have 88 patients who no longer need to be isolated out of those 262 positives. This would suggest to me that people are hopefully taking social distancing seriously, along with hand washing and those procedures that will minimize the spread of this.”

In related news, once again Faribault and Watonwan counties have zero positive cases, while Blue Earth County has five and Jackson County has one.

Langer acknowledged that the numbers may well still rise, but continual vigilance is key.

“Things can change rapidly, due to the fact that health care facilities are catching up with the number of tests that have been done,” he said. “For a while, they had a backlog of tests, and once they get those in, the numbers could go up.

“I would encourage people to check out our Facebook page Community Health & Human Services of Faribault and Martin Counties. We are providing updated information for people on a regular basis, and it provides prevention methods. It’s a good resource for accurate information.

“I encourage people to keep plugging away and taking precautions,” he said. “It’s not time to let up on that, and we need people to know that.”