Two months after more than 7,000 hospital patients in Utah were urged to get tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV) amid a potential outbreak, state health department officials have reported that more people have recently tested positive for HCV, according to Fox 13 Salt Lake City.

Health authorities are also warning that only 35 percent of people potentially exposed to hep C in the recent incident have gotten tested so far, with only a few weeks left of free testing.

Outbreak concerns first began when Elet Neilson, 49, a former nurse at the McKay-Dee and Davis hospitals in the city of Ogden, Utah, tested HCV positive, as did one of her former patients, for the same strain of hep C, genotype 2b.

According to court documents, Neilson later pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a controlled substance, ultimately admitting to diverting painkiller drugs while on the job. Nielson was fired from both hospitals and was later issued a fine of $413 for the crime. She served no jail time.

While the Utah Department of Health has not yet released an exact number of people who contracted HCV in the outbreak, they have confirmed that a number of people have tested positive for the virus since their last published reports. They are hoping to publish a full account of the outbreak by mid-March.

In the meantime, both McKay-Dee and Davis hospitals are offering free hep C testing through January 31. The facilities have also said they will cover the future costs and care of all people who contracted the virus in the outbreak.