NC COVID hospitalizations drop for 4th straight day; Meck County metrics also dip

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to decline in North Carolina.

The Department of Health and Human Services reported on Friday that 3,512 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state -- still high but down 154 from Thursday, marking the fourth consecutive day that hospitalizations have dropped.

The number of people hospitalized has fallen by 394 in those four days.

The number of deaths from the virus remained steady, with another 125 people succumbing to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

8,464 people in North Carolina have died since the start of the pandemic.

The number of positive cases reported on Friday was 7,436 and the daily percent positive rate fell slightly to 10.1%.

>> 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.

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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? Key metrics continue to drop in Charlotte

As of Friday morning, there were 79,674 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 721 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.

Highlights about the 78,888 COVID-19 cases reported in Mecklenburg County as of Jan. 20, 2021 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 757 laboratory-confirmed infections per day were reported compared to the 14-day average of 828 confirmed infections. This represents a decrease over the last 14 days. These data are based on Mecklenburg resident cases reported to MCPH.
• During the past week, an average of 511 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents a decrease 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 12.4 percent of individuals who were tested in Mecklenburg County were positive for COVID-19. This represents a decrease trend 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.
• Seven hundred-sixteen deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
• Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 11 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 85 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
• All deaths, except seventeen, occurred among adults with underlying chronic illnesses.
• Almost 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.
• Nearly 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.

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Cox Media Group