The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday reported 1,621 new cases. The state has been reporting a daily increase of at least a thousand new cases for over a month. The trend began on June 24.
30,639 tests were completed in the last 24 hours, according to NCDHHS.
The percent of positive from those tests is at 9% in the state.
>> Have questions about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Carolinas? We have an entire section dedicated to coverage of the outbreak -- CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
1,170 people are currently hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19.
7 additional deaths were reported, bringing the total to 1,785.
North Carolina continues to move up in the ranking of testing per population. The state is now 21st in the country, up from 23rd last week.
North Carolina is conducting 145,277 COVID-19 tests per 1 million residents -- about 20,000 more per 1 million than last week.
Note: The numbers we show you every day mean everything in how our community recovers from coronavirus -- both in terms of healthcare and the economy -- but they don’t mean much without the proper context and as much transparency as possible.
New cases vary day by day based on a lot of factors. That can include how long it takes to get results back, so a new case reported today can really be several days old.
The other big metric we watch is the percent of positive cases. This is data we can only get from the state because it’s not as simple as factoring a percent of new cases each day from the number of tests. That’s because test results take days and come from a variety of places.
In South Carolina, The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 1,170 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 confirmed deaths, in addition to three new probable deaths.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 80,856, confirmed deaths to 1,436 and 55 probable deaths.
As of Sunday, a total of 700,464 tests have been conducted in South Carolina. According to health officials, the total number of test results reported Sunday statewide was 7,490 and the percent positive was 15.6 percent.
WHAT ABOUT CLOSER TO HOME?
As of Sunday afternoon, there were 19,268 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 183 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents. Data from Wednesday, July 22 are presented below.
As of July 22, 2020, there were 17,859 cases and 186 deaths due to COVID-19 among county residents reported to Mecklenburg County Public Health (MCPH).
Highlights about the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Mecklenburg County as of July 22, 2020 include:
- About 3 in 4 reported cases were adults ages 20 to 59 years old.
- About a third of reported cases are Hispanic – most of whom are younger adults. The high number of reported cases among young Hispanics remains a significant concern. As previously noted, some factors influencing this trend include:
- Targeted testing occurring in neighborhoods with lower access to care, some of which have larger Hispanic populations;
- Higher proportions of Hispanics working in essential jobs that make social distancing difficult;
- Significant household spread among large families; and
- Pre-existing disparities in other social and economic determinants of health, like poverty.
MCPH continues to expand outreach to Hispanic members of our community, including increased dissemination of the outreach toolkit in Spanish for community partners, setting up targeted outreach to Hispanic-owned and -serving businesses, and partnering with local organizations and media outlets to spread key prevention messages.
- About 1 in 20 reported cases were hospitalized due to their COVID-19 infection. While everyone is at risk for severe COVID-19 complications, reported cases who were older adults (≥ 60 years) were more likely to be hospitalized compared to younger individuals. As testing has become more widely available and more individuals with mild or no symptoms are being diagnosed, the hospitalization rate among reported cases is expected to decline.
- About half of the cases have met CDC criteria to be released from isolation.
- During the past week, an average of 197 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents a slight increase over the last 14 days. These data are based on daily census counts from acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County reporting to MCPH.
- During the past week, an average of 10.9 percent of individuals who were tested were positive for COVID-19. This represents a stable trend over the last 14 days. These data only include tests conducted by Atrium Health, Novant Health, and CVS Health as available. Reporting of negative results to MCPH is not required or covered by communicable disease reporting laws. MCPH will include results from other providers and laboratories as accurate, consistent and timely reporting mechanisms are established.
- One hundred-eighty-six deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
- Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 3 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 24 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
- All deaths, except three, occurred among adults with underlying chronic illnesses.
- More than half were non-Hispanic Whites. The disparity in COVID-19 deaths among non-Hispanic Whites is related to differences in race/ethnicity of residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities actively experiencing an outbreak.
- More than half of the deaths were connected to active outbreaks at long-term care (LTC) facilities.
- Based on publicly available mobility tracking data, social distancing slightly increased then slightly decreased in Mecklenburg County over the last 14 days. Overall, this represents a fairly stable trend over the last 14 days.