NC officials concerned COVID-19 case count may rise again

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina health officials are worried the number of COVID-19 cases could rise once again.

State officials said they’re seeing an uptick in the COVID-19 positivity rate in wastewater.

According to the state tracking dashboard, 1.5 million COVID-19 virus particles were found in the wastewater this week. An increase from last week’s count of 1.2 million particles.

They’re concerned the number of cases is being under reported, because at-home test kits are not part of the state count.

“We know those lab-reported cases won’t capture all of them including our at-home tests,” said Dr. Elizabeth Tilson, North Carolina’s state health director. “But that’s why all along we’ve never relied on looking at one metric, we’ve relied on multiple metrics that help look at our trends.”

Last week, 3,026 new COVID-19 cases were reported to the state. A slight climb from the 2,795 reported in the week prior.

Around 41,000 North Carolinians have received their second COVID-19 booster since it was approved. Still, about 40% of the state remains unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, global health leaders say the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide have topped half a billion.

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