Hospital cases hit new record for COVID-19 in North Carolina

The number of people in North Carolina hospitals for coronavirus reached a new high Tuesday, passing 1,200 patients for only the third day since the pandemic began in March.

The state Health and Human Services department reported 1,244 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, up 16 from the previous high set on Thursday. North Carolina had 96 percent of its hospitals reporting to DHHS Tuesday compared to 94 percent for the previous record.

Hospital space remained available statewide: 686 beds for intensive care compared to 1,702 now in use; 6,266 normal care hospital beds available out of a 20,180 capacity.

DHHS listed 116,087 total coronavirus cases Tuesday, up 1,749 from Monday’s total. While high compared to the new daily cases in recent months, the state saw increases higher than 2,000 on three days last week.

The state’s death toll from COVID-19 rose by another 30 fatalities with Tuesday’s update, totaling 1,820.

Testing continued to ramp up statewide, climbing to more than 1.65 million tests while the rate of positive results remained at 8 percent.

This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 12:30 PM.