Alan Wooten Bladen Journal ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County has nearly as many coronavirus cases reported this month as was reported in its first five months combined. The Health Department said Thursday 38 cases have been identified as positive, pushing to 714 the total in this month’s reports. Bladen reported its first case on the night of April 2 and had 716 by the Aug. 31 report. Twenty-six recoveries were also logged, and 13 people are hospitalized. The active case count rose to 300. In January reports, Bladen County has logged nine deaths, 714 cases and 611 recoveries. Since the pandemic began, there have been 33 deaths, 2,557 cases and 2,224 recoveries. On the vaccination report, Bladen has had 282 people completed the series of two doses and given 2,915 first doses.