Public health officials are warning residents to take precautions after a rabid bat bit someone on private property in Lebanon on Monday.

The bat was sent to the Oregon State University Diagnostic Laboratory for testing, which confirmed that the bat was positive for rabies on Tuesday, according to a representative of the Linn County Environmental Health Program.

A news release from the agency didn’t include an exact location.

The bat was in a sleeping bag, according to the news release.

Bats and other wild animals, such as foxes and skunks, are only tested for rabies if there has been an animal or human exposure, according to the Linn County Environmental Health Program.

This is the first confirmed rabies case in the state this year, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

Benton County led the state with four rabid bats in 2018, state health authority data indicates. Four counties, including Linn County, had two instances of rabid bats last year.

From 2014 through 2018, Benton County had 11 rabid animals, all of them bats, according to the OHA. That’s the second-highest total in the state behind Lane County, which had 13 animals with rabies in that five-year span.

Linn County had seven animals with rabies in the same period, and all of them also were bats.

Bats are the most common carriers of rabies in the state. About 9 percent of bats tested for rabies are positive every year, according to the health authority.

Bat bites sometimes occur when people try to help an animal they perceive to be injured or dispose of one they mistakenly think is dead.