CAIRO — Mayor Howard Thrower said Monday that no additional city employees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus so far, though some results are still pending.

At least 45 registered city employees were tested for the virus last week at the city utilities office, part of a total of 90 individuals who participated in testing Wednesday.

“If there were positive cases, the employer would have to be notified,” Thrower said at Monday’s meeting of the Cairo City Council. “As of today, we haven’t had any notification.”

The mayor said he noticed an increase in cases over the weekend that he believes may be connected to Wednesday’s tests, though the city itself had not been notified of any new positives as of 3:30 p.m. Monday. Thrower did warn, however, that testing labs are currently backlogged, and not all of last week’s tests have been processed.

If at least two more employees were to test positive off of Wednesday’s tests, city offices would be considered to have a “cluster,” and epidemiologists from Albany would come in to determine who else may have been exposed to the virus.

“Contact tracing is huge for stopping this,” said council member Jerry Cox.

At least two city employees are already known to have tested positive for the virus, and Thrower said last week that he and City Manager Chris Addleton are looking to take more “defensive” measures to prevent future cases from cropping up among the city’s nearly 150 workers. To do that, city officials are now requiring visitors and staff to wear masks at all times while in public buildings.

Thrower has stated that one of goals of the new requirements is to prevent a scenario where city buildings have to be entirely closed off to the public as they were earlier this year.

All members of the city council adhered to the requirements by wearing masks to Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting, though the masks were removed during the meeting itself.

A total of 262 cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Grady County as of Tuesday morning, according to the Grady County Health Department.