Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on July 14
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We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases top 89,000
At least 89,484 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 1,552 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported an additional 1,956 cases of the virus, up from 1,827 on Monday but down from the all-time high of 2,462 on Saturday.
Daily cases have been on an upward trend. The number of cases reported from July 7 to July 13 was about 17% higher than the number reported during the previous week.
On Monday, health officials reported completing 34,360 new coronavirus tests, for a total of more than 1.2 million. Eleven percent of tests were positive, a new high in the state.
That number should be closer to 5% to be on track for slowing the spread of the virus, health officials have said.
State health officials say 67,124 people in North Carolina are presumed recovered from the virus, based on when they tested positive and if they were in the hospital. Data on recoveries is released once a week, on Monday.
Hospitalizations pass 1,100
At least 1,109 North Carolinians were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, officials say.
Tuesday marked the sixth consecutive day in which daily hospitalizations topped 1,000 and the first time the total surpassed 1,100, according to the state health department.
The latest total is up from the previous record high of 1,093 hospitalizations reported Saturday
Hospitalizations hit new records six days last week.
Phase Two extended
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that North Carolina will stay in Phase Two of its reopening plan for at least three more weeks.
The next phase, which likely would’ve loosened more restrictions and allowed more businesses to reopen, could’ve started Friday, but now the current phase will stay in effect until at least Aug. 7 as numbers aren’t where they should be.
“Our virus trends are not spiking like some other states,” Cooper said during a news conference Tuesday. “We have hospital capacity and our percent positive is still high but it’s steady. However, our numbers are still troubling and they could jump higher in the blink of an eye.”
The state is monitoring several benchmarks — including hospitalizations, positive cases and testing — to determine when restrictions in North Carolina can be lifted. Infections have been increasing since May, with coronavirus cases up 31.8% in the first 14 days in July compared to the last 14 days in June.
Record daily hospitalizations have been consistently reported in the state, and more than 440 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been within the last four weeks.
Additionally, a report found the virus is spreading “uncontrolled” in the state.
This is the second time Phase Two has been extended. Cooper initially extended it in late June.
Governor announces school plan
Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday announced North Carolina’s public school students will return to school in August under a “moderate social distancing” plan.
The plan limits how many students can be on campus at once and means many students will get a mix of in-person and remote teaching. Additionally, daily temperature checks and health screenings will be required. Many students and staff will also be required to wear face coverings.
School districts were previously instructed to create three reopening plans. Plan A called for “minimal distancing” and Plan C for remote-only instruction. Cooper decided on Plan B, or “moderate” distancing. School districts will need to decide who attends school each day.
Most students in the state are scheduled to return Aug. 17. Schools closed in mid-March and moved to remote instruction due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
Plan for high school sports in works
Following Cooper’s announcement on schools, the N.C. High School Athletic Association will now come up with a plan for possibly restarting sports.
Que Tucker, commissioner of the NCHSAA, said the plan will be announced after discussion with the organization’s Board of Directors.
“As was just shared by Governor Cooper, this decision on the starting of school for the 2020-2021 school year now puts us in a better position to make informed decisions concerning if, when, and how to resume athletic competition at NCHSAA member schools,” Tucker said.
Spring sports and the 2020 state basketball championships were canceled in March due to the pandemic. In June, teams were allowed to return to off-season training with no contact, temperature checks and other safety measures.
Order allowing bowling alleys to reopen is blocked
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a judge’s previous ruling that allowed many bowling alleys in the state to reopen.
Judge James Gale ruled last week that Cooper treated bowling alleys differently than businesses with similar coronavirus risk levels that had been allowed to reopen — overturning the governor’s executive order keeping them closed.
The Supreme Court granted a request from Cooper’s attorneys, who say allowing bowling alleys to reopen would make it harder to reopen schools and other businesses as coronavirus cases increase.
The Court’s decision puts a temporarily delay on the judge’s prior order, meaning the bowling alleys must shut down for now under Cooper’s executive order. The justices will review Gale’s decision.
NC among top states for health insurance loss
North Carolina ranks No. 5 in the United States for health insurance loss during the pandemic, a report found.
At least 238,000 North Carolinians became uninsured due to job losses between February and May, findings published on Monday show.
Unemployment increased in North Carolina after the state reported its first case of the virus in March and Cooper later ordered some businesses closed in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. More than 1.1 million North Carolina workers filed for unemployment between March 15 and June 30.
About 1 in 5 adult North Carolinians under age 65, or about 1.2 million people, don’t have health insurance with new job losses, according to a Families USA study.
Wells Fargo reports quarterly loss
Wells Fargo, which has a large presence in the Charlotte area, on Tuesday reported its first quarterly loss in more than a decade.
“It set aside $8.4 billion in the second quarter to cover coming defaults on loans due to the coronavirus pandemic,” The Charlotte Observer reported. “The bank also cut its dividend to 10 cents per share from 51 cents per share.”
The second-quarter loss of $2.4 billion was the only one to hit the bank since 2008.
Requests for mail-in ballots surge
North Carolina has had a “striking surge” in requests for mail-in ballots amid the pandemic, according to a report.
Election officials estimate as many as 1.5 million North Carolina voters could cast mail-in ballots in the fall — 10 times higher than the usual number.
Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, analyzed more than 65,000 requests for the ballots made through Friday — a four-fold increase compared to this time in 2016.
“We all were expecting a run-up in mail-in ballots,” Bitzer told The News & Observer on Monday. “I don’t think anybody would have expected that rate at this point.”
Lawmakers have recently made it easier to cast absentee ballots. Last month, Gov. Roy Cooper signed a law allowing voters to request the ballots online and decreasing the number of required witnesses to one, among other things.
Ballots for the November election will be mailed to voters by Sept. 4.
Charlotte mayor considers alcohol rules
The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, said Monday she would support banning late-night alcohol sales to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
After seeing images of crowds at local restaurants and bars, Vi Lyles said she would be in favor of ending alcohol sales at 10 p.m.
Orange County officials decided last week to ban alcohol sales after 10 p.m. at restaurants and bars.
In South Carolina, bars and restaurants must stop selling alcohol at 11 p.m.
Traveling to New York?
Travelers from North Carolina will be required to provide their contact information if they visit New York.
New York is requiring all visitors from states with significant spread of COVID-19, which includes North Carolina, to give officials their contact information upon arrival. That way, New York can better enforce its mandatory 14-day quarantine for these travelers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.
Those who don’t give their information will receive a $2,000 fine and could be subject to a hearing and ordered to complete mandatory quarantine.
Travelers from the designated states will have to give authorities a location form before they leave the airport. The form will include information about where the person is traveling from and where they are going. Airlines will hand out the form on the plane, and it will be available online.
No plan for regular testing in nursing homes
North Carolina still lacks a plan for regular coronavirus testing in nursing homes.
Residents in these facilities account for nearly half of all the state’s coronavirus deaths, and outbreaks have been reported at 40% of the 400 nursing homes in North Carolina.
Experts have said regular COVID-19 testing is essential to control the spread of the virus in nursing homes, and it’s especially important that staff members be repeatedly tested for the virus as community spread is prevalent in North Carolina. But the state has yet to create a plan to do so.
State officials recommend nursing homes test their staff every other week and announced last month a plan to test about 70,000 nursing home staff and residents by the end of August. It’s unclear how often staff members have been tested.
Case at Insurance Department
An employee at the North Carolina Department of Insurance has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told The News & Observer on Monday he didn’t know if the employee was symptomatic while at work but that other workers were tested and the office was cleaned. Other workers in the department now have the option to work from home.
This is the third case in the department. One employee tested positive in June and another in “the last week or two,” Causey said.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 7:15 AM.
