Franklin County Public Health reported a spike in COVID-19 cases on Friday. Thirty-nine new cases of COVID-19 were identified between Thursday and Friday. That is abnormally high for this rural county, which has recently reported around 20 new cases each day. The new cases bring the total number of active cases countywide to 195. The county reported a 6.04% test positivity rate on Friday and a 6.36% seven-day average test positivity rate. Franklin County Manager Donna Kissane attributed the new cases to clusters in prisons, pre-surgery tests and community spread, meaning people who test positive without a known exposure to another positive case. “Adhering to the best practices in the best defense to reduce the spread of the virus,” she wrote in her daily email.