Photo: Wesley Chin, Belmont Health Department director during the Select Board’s video conference.

Belmont is not being spared by the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of residents the state has confirmed “positive” has risen to 10, according to Wesley Chin, Health Department director, speaking before the Select Board via video conference on Thursday, March 26.

But the cases in Belmont are those reported by the state’s Department of Public Health and likely don’t indicated the actual number of individuals who have the virus, according to Chin.

Read the latest update from the Town of Belmont on all things COVID-19.

Belmont’s underreporting is not unusual as many people remain asymptomatic – showing no signs of illness – or have very mild “common cold” symptoms in addition to a shortage of testing kits that pushes down the actual number of positive samples.

And while just two weeks ago all the cases in Belmont were linked to a late-February Biogen sales meeting at the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel in Boston, now the source is more insidious.

“Out of our [10] positives, I can share that four are related to Biogen. The rest are related to workplace exposures in health care institutions and just community spread,” said Chin.

As of March 27, Belmont has 10 cases with 20 individuals currently undergoing monitoring or are under quarantine. Twenty-four have completed monitoring and are no longer in quarantine.