8,444 new COVID-19 cases reported in NC, smashing previous single-day high

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 8,444 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the first time the state has seen a daily case count top 8,000.

The previous highest single-day record was set exactly a week ago, when North Carolina recorded 7,540 new cases -- the new record is nearly 1,000 cases higher than the previous.

“I am very worried for our state. Everyone must act right now to protect each other,” said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. “Do not wait until it’s you or your loved sick with COVID-19 to wear a mask, wait apart from others and wash your hands often. Do not wait until it’s you or your loved one alone in a hospital bed. Do not wait until you’ve lost a loved one to this pandemic. Take personal responsibility for you, your loved ones and your community now.”

The spike in cases is accompanied by an increase in completed tests, with 60,000 new tests completed yesterday.

The latest data shows that 10.5% of tests are positive, the lowest the metric has been in a week. The state’s goal is to get that metric to 5%.

Currently, 2,824 people across the state are hospitalized with COVID-19, the highest number reported since the pandemic began in March.

In less than a month, more than 1,000 additional COVID-19 patients have occupied beds in North Carolina hospitals.

Sixty more COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday.

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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? Mecklenburg County metrics still rising too

As of Friday morning, there were 54,271 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 508 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.

Highlights about the 53,194 COVID-19 cases reported in Mecklenburg County as of December 16, 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 626 laboratory-confirmed infections per day were reported compared to the 14-day average of 595 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 298 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 12.1 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.
Five hundred-two deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 7 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 67 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 the 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.