NORTH CAROLINA — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday reported 3,147 COVID-19 hospitalizations -- the second time this week the number has risen above 3,000.
3,095 hospitalizations were reported Thursday. According to the NCDHHS, the last time there were more than 3,000 people in the hospital fighting the virus at one time was in late January, during the winter surge.
“If cases keep increasing at the current rate, we will pass that January peak in a matter of weeks,” NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Of those currently hospitalized, 760 are fighting the virus in the intensive care unit -- 23 more than than Thursday.
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6,631 new cases were reported -- a slight dip from Thursday’s 7,020 cases, which was the first time daily cases have topped 7,000 since Jan. 23.
The percent positive rate dipped from 12.2% to 11.9%, though it is still much higher than the state’s goal of 5%.
As of Friday, 59% of North Carolinians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
State health officials also announced on Friday that the use of monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 is up 18-fold in North Carolina since late June.
[ CDC: NC COVID-19 hospital admissions by age group ]
What about closer to home?
Cases and hospitalizations continue to increase across Mecklenburg County, with an average of 13.2% testing positive. The county wants 5% for 30 days to lift the countywide mask mandate, which begins later this month.
Charlotte and the unincorporated parts of Mecklenburg County were placed under a mask mandate on Wednesday.
An indoor mask mandate that includes the entire county will start on August 30, though it was previously expected to begin on Aug. 28 -- ten days after the Charlotte mandate began. The public health rule that would mandate the mask requires a legal notice to the public. The mask mandate can’t go into effect until 10 days following the legal notice. The county hasn’t issued it yet.
The countywide order will take the place of the placeholder mask mandate that Charlotte and parts of the county is currently under. The placeholder proclamation has an end date of Sept 1. The end date for the countywide order isn’t until 5% positivity rate for 30 days or whenever the county rescinds it.
Mecklenburg County reported that over the past week, an average of 386 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 -- which is an increase from previous weeks.
On Friday, county health officials reported COVID-19 clusters at four hospitals.
- Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center LCH 7A (nursing unit) - 9 staff
- Atrium Pineville Non-Maternity Unit- 38 staff
- Atrium Pineville Maternity Unit - 14 staff and 7 residents
- Novant Matthews Medical Center Emergency Department- 13 staff
- Novant Matthews Medical Center Safety Officers- 6 staff
Channel 9′s Tina Terry was the first to report on a cluster at Atrium Health - Pineville last week at the maternity ward. Since then, we’ve learned there are now four new clusters in local hospitals.
County and state health officials would not say just how many of the news cases were among vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members.
Atrium Health sent the following statement regarding the clusters:
“Our teammates are no different than anyone else and the chances of them contracting the virus increases dramatically as more of the community that they are caring for come to our facilities who are infected.”
>> In the video at the top of the page, Terry has the latest from the hospitals on the clusters.
[ ALSO READ: 50 workers, 9 patients test positive in COVID outbreak at Pineville hospital ]
51% of Mecklenburg County residents are now fully vaccinated.
- During the past week, an average of 528 laboratory confirmed infections per day were reported compared to the 14-day average of 500 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 368 individuals with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents an increase 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 13.2 percent of individuals who were tested in Mecklenburg County were positive for COVID-19. This represents a slight increase 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.
- One thousand- twenty-one deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
- Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 17 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 138 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
- All deaths, except twenty-seven, 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 40 percent 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 2 in 3 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.
- Between March 22, 2021 and August 18, 2021, MPCH received and confirmed reports of 432 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated residents (<1% of fully vaccinated residents). This does not represent all breakthrough cases, as these are based on self-report during case investigations following COVID-19 diagnosis. Vaccination status is confirmed using the NC COVID-19 Vaccination Management System (CVMS)
(WATCH: Mecklenburg leaders vote to implement countywide indoor mask mandate in 10 days)
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