NC sees slight drop after shattering record for highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases

For the third day in a row, North Carolina has reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases.

On Saturday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 2,102 new cases. The drop in cases followed two days where North Carolina shattered its record for the highest single-increase of COVID-19 cases. On Friday, the state reported 2,684 cases.

The state also reported a high number of completed tests, with 37,082 more tests completed.

The percentage of positive tests increased slightly to 6.6%, still above the state’s goal of 5% or lower.

Currently, 1,140 people are hospitalized in North Carolina with COVID-19, with 97% of hospitals reporting. This marks the eleventh straight day that hospitalizations have remained over 1,000 and the sixth straight day that hospitalizations have remained over 1,100.

While the state still has 4,953 available in-patient beds and 488 available ICU beds, NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said on Thursday that rural hospitals are feeling the strain of rising infections.

>> 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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[COUNTY-BY-COUNTY COVID-19 RESOURCE GUIDE]

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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?

As of Saturday afternoon, there were 31,442 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 374 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.

Highlights about the 30,784 COVID-19 cases reported in Mecklenburg County as of October 14, 2020 include:

• About 3 in 4 reported cases were adults ages 20 to 59 years old.
• About 1 in 4 reported cases are Hispanic – most of whom are younger adults. As previously noted, some factors influencing this trend include:
• Targeted testing occurring in neighborhoods with lower access to care, some of which have larger Hispanic populations;
• Higher proportions of Hispanics working in essential jobs that make social distancing difficult;
• Significant household spread among large families; and
• Pre-existing disparities in other social and economic determinants of health, like poverty.
• 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 130 laboratory-confirmed infections were reported compared to the 14-day average of 108 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 86 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. Overall, this represents a fairly stable trend 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 5.1 percent of individuals who were tested in Mecklenburg County were positive for COVID-19. This represents a slight increase in trends 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.
• Three hundred-seventy-four deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
• Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 4 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 49 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
• All deaths, except five, 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.
• More than 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 slightly increased in Mecklenburg County over the last 14 days.

Cox Media Group