McDonald County announces 26 COVID-19 cases, first COVID-19 death, 337 cases added since Sunday

McDonald County continues to be hit hard by the novel coronavirus, reporting 575 cases, according to a Health Department Facebook post published Wednesday evening.

That was an increase of  26 cases in the previous 24 hours with 18 of the cases located in the southwest quadrant of the county and the remaining eight in the northeast, according to the post.

Earlier Wednesday, the McDonald County Health Department announced the county's first COVID-19 deaths.

Over a three-day period, the county's COVID-19 total increased by 337.