NC hospitalizations at new record high; Meck County virus metrics keep climbing

Another 182 people with COVID-19 have been admitted to hospitals in North Carolina, bringing the state to a record high of 2,735 (with 96% of the state’s hospitals reporting).

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 5,236 new positive COVID-19 cases, which is pretty much in line with the number of new cases reported every day over the last week.

The daily percent positive rate dipped to 10.9%, a drop from Monday’s 11.6% but still above the state’s goal of 5%.

There have now been 446,601 total cases in the state since March.

Another 26 people have died from COVID-19, bringing the total in the state since the start of the pandemic to 5,881.

[ ‘I feel fine’: Charlotte doctor first in NC to get COVID-19 vaccine ]

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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.

What about closer to home? Trends continue to creep up in Meck County

As of Tuesday morning, there were 51,838 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 491 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.

Highlights about the 50,845 COVID-19 cases reported in Mecklenburg County as of December 13, 2020 include:

• About 3 in 4 reported cases were adults ages 20 to 59 years old.
• 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.
• About 8 out of 10 have met CDC criteria to be released from isolation.
• During the past week, an average of 621 laboratory-confirmed infections per day were reported compared to the 14-day average of 547 confirmed infections. This represents an increase over the last 14 days. These data are based on Mecklenburg resident cases reported to MCPH.
• During the past week, an average of 273 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents an 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 11.6 percent of individuals who were tested in Mecklenburg County were positive for COVID-19. This represents an increase over the last 14 days. These data only include ELRs for molecular (PCR) tests submitted to NC DHHS for laboratories electronically submitting negative and positive COVID-19 results.
• Four hundred-eighty-seven deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
• Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 6 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 65 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
• All deaths, except eight, 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.
• Half of deaths were connected to active outbreaks at long-term care (LTC) facilities.
• Among deaths not connected to outbreaks at long-term care facilities, nearly 3 in 4 were non-White, with 40 percent being non-Hispanic Black. As previously noted, these disparities are largely driven by higher rates of underlying chronic conditions that increase risk of severe complications due to COVID-19 infection among these communities
• Based on publicly available mobility tracking data, social distancing represents a fairly stable trend in Mecklenburg County over the last 14 days.

More local hospitals anticipate getting vaccine as it arrives in NC

Cox Media Group