New virus cases, percent positive rate, deaths in NC all trending in wrong direction

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 2,425 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, along with 50 more deaths -- a sharp increase in both metrics as North Carolina’s key indicators continue to trend in the wrong direction.

The spike in new cases was accompanied by 24,025 more completed tests, the lowest testing increase in six days.

At the same time, the percentage of positive tests climbed to 7.4% after several days around 6%.

Currently, 1,186 people are hospitalized in North Carolina with COVID-19, an increase of 11 patients from Tuesday.

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Catawba, Caldwell counties see COVID-19 cases rise

Officials with a Catawba County hospital said it is nearing capacity for its critical care unit.

Health care workers at Catawba Valley Medical Center and UNC Caldwell in Lenoir have seen the number of COVID-19 cases steadily rise over the last month.

There are 44 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Catawba County, which is double from October.

Crystal Cannon is a respiratory therapist at one of the hospitals and was comforted by her husband last night after another death.

“I’ve cried with family members,” Cannon said. “I’ve cried with my patients. I’ve gone home and cried at night. It’s hard when you see these patients suffer, and they’re scared.”

In Caldwell County, 900 people tested positive for the coronavirus in October, which is more than three times as many as September as the positivity rate soared to above 12%.

“It was a very tough month,” said Paige Counts, with the Caldwell County Health Department. “Lots of cases for us. We’ve also seen more hospitalizations, particularly at our local hospital.”

Catawba Valley Medical Center said it is averaging 30 patients a day.

“While our current numbers show us at or near capacity for our critical care unit, we have the flexibility to accommodate more critical care patients, including those showing symptoms or who have tested positive for COVID-19,” said Matt Webber, with Catawba Valley Medical Center.

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.