Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on June 26
We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases top 58,000
At least 58,818 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 1,303 have died, according to state and county health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reported an additional 1,635 cases of the virus, up from 1,009 on Thursday.
At least 892 coronavirus patients were in North Carolina hospitals on Friday, up from 891 the day before and the third-highest daily hospitalization count reported since the start of the pandemic. Tuesday saw a record high, with 915 hospitalizations.
Health officials on Friday reported completing an additional 24,847 tests, for a total of 836,125. The percentage of tests returned positive as of June 25 was 10%.
The percent positive rate cannot be calculated by simply dividing the number of cases by the number of completed tests, mainly due to the timing of when tests are administered and when and how test results are submitted to the state from labs.
Face mask requirement
A statewide face mask requirement issued by Gov. Roy Cooper this week goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday.
Face masks will be required in public, but exceptions apply to children under the age of 11, people with certain medical conditions and people exercising outdoors, away from others.
North Carolina is only the third state in the South to issue a mask mandate, behind Kentucky and Virginia. The governors of both states issued the mandates in May.
Learn more about North Carolina’s new rule, including how it will be enforced, here.
Judge denies bid to reopen by bars
Judge James Gale ruled Friday that bars in North Carolina will remain closed during Phase Two, finding Gov. Roy Cooper was “within his rights as governor to choose to keep bars closed as a means of slowing the spread of the coronavirus,” The News & Observer reported.
A group of 200 bars known as the North Carolina Bar & Tavern Association had sued Cooper seeking to reopen earlier this month.
The bars had argued they should not be treated differently than restaurants and breweries, which were allowed to reopen under Phase Two with certain social distancing guidelines in place. Cooper extended Phase Two for an additional three weeks on Wednesday.
Zack Medford, who owns Isaac Hunter’s Tavern in Raleigh and spearheaded the lawsuit, called another three weeks of closing a “death sentence” for bars.
Gale conceded in his opinion that Cooper’s “choices may be debatable” but said the bars could not prove his response to the coronavirus pandemic was “sufficiently irrational so as to be outside the realm of reasonableness.”
Unmasked protesters gather in Raleigh
Protesters demanding North Carolina be reopened arrived in downtown Raleigh on Friday with a petition for State House Speaker Tim Moore.
The petition with 6,000 signatures asks lawmakers to block Cooper’s mask requirement and investigate his executive order, according to Ashley Smith, co-founder of ReopenNC.
The assembly of just under 100 people — none of whom were wearing masks — lined up outside the Legislative building around noon, The News & Observer reported.
Many did not enter because of a mandatory temperature screening they said was an intrusion.
Once inside, Adam Smith, Ashley Smith’s husband, gave a speech in Moore’s doorway.
Bill shields NC universities from tuition refunds
North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that would give colleges and universities immunity against lawsuits brought over COVID-19 closures during the 2020 spring semester — including legal claims for tuition refunds.
Several universities have already been sued after classes moved online this spring, The News & Observer reported.
Thursday’s bill applies to all 17 campuses in the UNC System, community colleges and private universities statewide for legal actions taken on or after March 27.
RDU’s busiest airline adds safety measures
Delta, the busiest airline operating out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport before COVID-19 stunted flights, is implementing changes it hopes will attract customers as the pandemic drags on.
A key change is the airline’s mask requirement, The News & Observer reported.
“We know masks are the single most important thing that the flying public can do to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus,” John Azzaro, Delta’s general manager at RDU, said.
Delta is also filling its airplanes to 60% capacity and leaving middle seats open to allow travelers to socially distance themselves.
Raleigh issues social distancing reminders
The City of Raleigh placed 150 social distancing decals throughout Glenwood South, one of the city’s busiest nightlife corridors, on Friday in an effort to keep people six feet apart.
Sidewalk boards also remind people to wear face masks — a statewide requirement starting Friday at 5 p.m. Raleigh has required facial coverings since last week.
Although bars remain closed, crowds have gathered on Glenwood South, where restaurants that serve alcohol are open.
“The mayor has been very clear about education, education, education when it comes to masks and social distancing,” said Raleigh spokesperson Julia Milstead. “This is one more way to educate folks and remind them to follow the guidelines and that we’re all in this together.”
State accuses nursing home of lapses
A Rowan County nursing home linked to 18 coronavirus-related deaths put its residents in “immediate jeopardy,” according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
At least 168 residents and employees of The Citadel in Salisbury have tested positive for the disease, the worst outbreak of any nursing home in the state.
Sherri Stoltzfus, administrator for the facility, told The Charlotte Observer earlier this month that allegations about the facility or its leaders making the spread of the virus worse are false.
“No one did anything wrong to create this,” she said in an email.
State officials investigated the facility starting April 25 and found “two dozen violations of government nursing home rules before and during the COVID-19 outbreak,” The Charlotte Observer reported. The facility has or plans to address the violations, according to a state report.
Push to reopen gyms
North Carolina lawmakers approved a new bill that would lift coronavirus-related restrictions on gyms. It was the sixth time the legislature tried to reopen businesses that were closed under an executive order from Cooper.
The latest gym bill now heads to the governor. The proposal was on the House calendar less than 24 hours after legislators failed to override Cooper’s veto of a bill that would have allowed bars and gyms to run at limited capacity and restaurants to have full capacity.
Senate’s 2 a.m. vote could affect mask mandate
The Republican-led North Carolina Senate voted at 2 a.m. Friday in a move that some say could make wearing masks in public illegal starting Aug. 1.
Under a North Carolina law enacted in the 1950s and targeted at the KKK, it’s illegal to wear a mask in public places. But lawmakers voted earlier this month to suspend the law until August as health experts encouraged face masks as a way to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Democrats had proposed allowing masks in public until February, but GOP lawmakers removed that provision from the bill, reverting to the August deadline, The News & Observer reported.
The vote came 15 hours before the Democratic governor’s mask mandate goes into effect.
Lieutenant governor plans to sue Cooper
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican, said Thursday he plans to file a lawsuit against Cooper over executive orders related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today, I notified Governor Cooper that, as a member of the Council of State, I will be suing his administration for violating the Emergency Management Act,” Forest said in a post on Facebook. “The governor has repeatedly ignored the law, enacting mandates that selectively target the businesses and citizens of North Carolina without concurrence from a majority of the Council of State.”
The lawsuit comes after Cooper announced Wednesday the state was staying in Phase Two of reopening as coronvirus cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of tests coming back positive remain high.
Some sheriffs won’t enforce mask rule
At least four North Carolina sheriffs have said they won’t enforce the governor’s mask mandate.
The sheriffs are in Alamance, Beaufort, Halifax and Sampson counties.
Under Cooper’s order, businesses that don’t enforce the mask mandate could be issued citations. People who enter a business without masks and refuse to leave could be charged with trespassing.
Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton called the mandate “unconstitutional” in a Facebook post and said he will only enforce it if “court ordered by a Judicial Official or the Legislature.” He said enforcing it will distract officers from criminal investigations.
State has not tested all nursing home patients
North Carolina has still not tested all nursing home residents and staff, more than six weeks after Vice President Mike Pence told governors the testing should take place.
Nursing home residents make up less than 1 percent of the state’s population but account for more than half of the coronavirus-related deaths, The News & Observer reported.
The delay in testing is “unconscionable,” Charlene Harrington, professor emerita in the School of Nursing at University of California San Francisco and one of the country’s top experts on nursing-home policy, told The N&O.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 7:02 AM.
