NC coronavirus cases continue to rise Wednesday, with deaths now in double digits
As officials watch to see whether a statewide stay-at-home order will blunt the impact of coronavirus in North Carolina, the official case count rose to 1,584 on Wednesday morning, with deaths reaching into double digits one week after the state’s first fatality.
The state Department of Health and Human Resources reported 86 new cases of COVID-19, up from 1,498 on Tuesday. At least 15 people in the state have died as a result of coronavirus infection.
Wednesday was the second full day of Gov. Roy Cooper’s statewide stay-at-home order, which has much of North Carolina sheltering indoors and has shuttered all but essential businesses.
Wednesday morning’s total broke a string of nine straight days of triple-digit case increases for the state.
The News & Observer is keeping a separate count based partially on reports from county health departments. As of Wednesday, that total stood at 1,717.
North Carolina has now conducted 26,243 coronavirus tests, up from 23,106. As of Wednesday morning, 204 people with coronavirus were hospitalized statewide, up from 157.
As of Wednesday evening, Wake County had 228 cases and Durham had 141.
NC deputy dies from coronavirus
About 90 miles southwest of Raleigh, Montgomery County announced that one of its sheriff’s deputies, Bud Phouang, had succumbed to the virus. He had worked as a middle school resource officer and learned he had the virus on Sunday, the Montgomery Herald reported.
“Lord, please have a hedge around all our first responders,” Teresa Cox Hayes wrote in a Facebook post. “Prayers for his family.”
On Tuesday, Cooper signed an executive order barring utility companies from shutting off service to customers who cannot pay.
“Today’s action orders that electric, gas, water and wastewater services can’t be shut off for the next 60 days,” Cooper said in a Tuesday news conference, adding that telecom companies that provide phone, cable and internet services are “strongly urged to follow these same rules.”
The order also urges banks not to charge overdraft fees, late fees and other penalties for the next 60 days, while landlords are “strongly encouraged to follow the spirit of” an order previously enacted by N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, which delays evictions.
Wilkes County also announced its first death on Wednesday after a woman in her 60s with underlying conditions died from COVID-19.
Bertie County announced a death Wednesday, saying only that the person was at least 65 years old. Mecklenburg County also reported a death on Wednesday, its second. And Rockingham County reported its first death.
Mandy Cohen pushes importance of stay-at-home order
In an online press conference Wednesday afternoon, Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said that the largest group — 43% — of North Carolina’s COVID-19 cases had occurred in people aged 25 to 49. But 78% of the state’s deaths were among people over 65 years old.
Cohen also spoke to the debate over mask-wearing by the general public during the pandemic.
“Masks are protecting the world from you. It’s not really protecting you from the world,” Cohen said.
Cohen emphasized the importance of adhering to Cooper’s statewide stay-at-home order, which went into effect Monday evening. She said the state supports those local and county governments that have adopted even more strident rules than what the governor ordered, limiting the use of hotels, motels and vacation homes, for instance. But for now, the state is not taking more severe measures.
We are all looking at efforts that are going to slow the spread of this virus. Slowing the spread of this virus is going to save lives,” Cohen said.
“We will continue to look at options to see if we need to do further social distancing,” she said. “We will continue to look at our case counts and our hospitalizations and our strain on our medical system and learn from other places around the country to understand what is working and what might need to be changed, but right now we’re focused on implementing the governor’s order from Monday, which is a stay-at-home order.”
NCEM Director Mike Sprayberry asked people to refrain from calling 9-1-1 and 2-1-1 to report suspected violations of the governor’s stay-home directive or social-distancing guidelines, including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.
Sprayberry said during the press conference that the state’s logistics and sourcing team has ordered nearly $100,000 million worth of medical protective gear but has received very little of it.
Sprayberry said the state continues to register and screen disaster and medical volunteers, including retired doctors and nurses. Nearly 1,900 people have registered online and more than 700 have been vetted and are ready to work. Sprayberry said these medical professionals could be assigned to hospitals as needed and to fill in for employees who may become sick.
He also said the 90 families still living in FEMA travel trailers in North Carolina will not be required to start paying rent this month. FEMA has granted 90-day waiver for rent on the trailers, which are housing families who were displaced by Hurricane Florence in 2018.
A retirement complex set apart
Ruth DeYoung considers herself to be in good health but knows she’s in a high-risk category; she will turn 91 later this month. So she has been following guidelines about hand-washing and keeping her distance from her neighbors at Cambridge Village, a retirement complex in Apex.
She doesn’t have much choice.
Visitors have been banned at the facility to prevent importing the virus and spreading it through the 200-plus-unit development. The bus has stopped taking residents on field trips. There is no more bingo. The on-site exercise room is closed, along with the coffee shop where residents used to gather in the mornings.
Chairs around the facility have been moved apart, so residents aren’t tempted to sit next to anyone who might be sick.
At mealtime, residents go to the dining hall and get in line, taking a mark on the carpet six feet away from anyone else. They pick up their food — in take-out containers — and return to their apartments to eat in solitude.
“I always enjoyed going down (to the dining room) by myself and the hostess would seat me with somebody and it was just a chance to talk with somebody different all the time,” said DeYoung, who moved to Cambridge Village seven years ago. “I kind of miss it.”
DeYoung tries to keep herself busy, she said. Her fourth-floor apartment has a balcony overlooking a pond with ducks and geese. Her daughter-in-law has made sure she has crossword puzzles to work. She can play word and number games on her tablet.
“And there is always TV to fall back on,” she said in a phone interview with The News & Observer.
DeYoung wonders if, when the threat of the virus is tamed, people will ever go back to shaking hands and hugging when they meet.
“You can’t touch anybody now,” DeYoung said. “I don’t think it will ever be like it was before this started.”
Release of some inmates discussed
As the illness spreads, epidemiologists have been trying to predict best- and worst-case infection rates to help governments, healthcare systems and businesses prepare.
The N.C. Department of Public Safety said Wednesday it is considering whether it can release prison inmates after a state prison employee tested positive for COVID-19, The News & Observer reported. Some public health experts have urged Gov. Cooper to order the release of incarcerated people to reduce the risk of illness spreading.
“There are multiple statutes involved with varying limited authorities,” Pamela Walker, spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an email. “The Department of Public Safety is considering what options, if any, are available for reducing the prison population while maintaining public safety.”
Getting meals to kids in need, school schedules change
Since the virus hit, state agencies and non-profits have scrambled to identify the most pressing needs and look for ways to help. Concerned about students in low-income families not having enough to eat after schools were ordered to close in mid-March, the Wake County school system began preparing more than 20,000 meals a day to be distributed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at nearly three dozen sites around the county.
While most of the meals have been used, school officials said Wednesday some are going to waste because no one picks them up and after a certain amount of time, they have to be tossed in the trash for food-safety reasons.
“Some sites are having to throw away food because not enough people are coming to get food,” the PTA at Washington Elementary School in Raleigh posted Tuesday on Facebook. “If you know any families with food insecurity, please encourage them to use the food pickup options offered by Wake County Public School System!”
The Wake County school system also announced Wednesday it will switch all year-round schools to a traditional calendar through at least mid-May while schools are moving to the use of remote learning.
Wake notified families on Wednesday that they’re temporarily suspending the use of the year-round calendar, in which students get periodic short breaks during the school year. This means thousands of students at year-round schools will now have classes each weekday through at least May 15 instead of any upcoming breaks in their schedule.
The change will take effect on April 13.
Staff writers Jonathan Alexander, Virginia Bridges and Keung Hui contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 11:32 AM.