Public health has confirmed 17 new deaths and 1,491 new coronavirus cases on Monday. The huge jump in cases are the result of a backlog of 1,191 tests received from one lab, officials said. Just 293 of the new cases are from the county’s daily report. Claremont now has 16 confirmed cases.

Public health has identified 13,816 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of the county, and 617 deaths. Eighty-nine percent of people who died had underlying health conditions.

“Today’s dramatic increase in case counts should not cause undue alarm. As part of efforts to increase testing capacity in the county, many new labs responded to the emergency and are working with public health to ensure that they have the proper reporting systems in place. Until this reporting issue is resolved, there may be periodic increases in positive cases and total cases due to unevenness in daily reporting,” public health officials said in the daily coronavirus update.

Thirteen people who died were over the age of 65; two were between the ages of 41 and 65 years old; and one was between the ages of 18 and 40. Twelve people who died had underlying health conditions, including eleven over the age of 65, and one person between the ages of 41 and 65.