NC reports highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases in 2 weeks

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,972 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day increase since Aug. 6 when the state reported 1,979 new cases.

However, the 7-day rolling average of new cases continues to decline from previous weeks.

To date, 8% of tests are positive -- the highest rate since July 23. Since then, the percentage of positive cases has remained steady at 6%-7%.

Currently, 1,023 people across North Carolina are hospitalized with COVID-19, with 92% of hospitals reporting.

Across the state, 511 intensive care unit beds and 5,528 inpatient beds are currently available.

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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.

Cox Media Group