NC sees second day of 2,500+ daily coronavirus case increases, with 30 additional deaths
As a surge of new cases in the fall continues, North Carolina saw an increase of 2,584 cases on Saturday — the second highest in the week — a day after the state set a record again for daily case increases.
An additional 2,716 cases were added to the state’s total on Friday.
The totals climbed to 258,292 cases and 4,144 deaths, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported. The state reported an additional 30 deaths on Saturday. N.C. surpassed a death toll of 4,000 on Wednesday.
The state lists 1,181 current hospitalizations, with 97% of the hospitals reporting.
3,753,953 tests have been completed with a high positive rate of 7.3%. The state was close to its 5% target rate earlier in the fall and summer.
The curve of seven-day case averages has been bending upward to numbers not seen since the summer. The higher daily case increases of around 2,000 seen recently comes as Phase 3 of reopening was extended by three more weeks by Gov. Roy Cooper on Oct. 21.
Bars, lounges, nightclubs and venues are among the establishments allowed to open at limited capacity with alcohol consumption restricted to outdoors only.
Wake County elementary students will return to classrooms Monday under safety measures and mandatory mask-wearing.
This will include PreK-3 students and K-12 students in special-education programs, who will return to in-person classes slowly with limited numbers of students over the next three weeks when daily in-person classes start Nov. 16, The News & Observer reported.
On Friday, UNC-Chapel Hill announced that students will have the option of returning to school in the spring for in-person classes and living in single dorm rooms. All faculty members and staff will have to be tested for COVID-19 and be regularly tested going forward in the semester.
New cluster report
A detailed new report released on Oct. 21 that will be regularly updated by the health department lists the numbers of reported clusters broken down by cases and deaths and types of cluster — such as restaurants, churches and social gatherings — since May 22.
There have been 19 deaths related to coronavirus cases at meat processing plants and 13 deaths connected to religious gathering clusters, the report shows.
A total of 101 confirmed cases and three deaths are connected across Mecklenburg and Iredell counties to the United House of Prayer for All People church in Charlotte after church events held in early October, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Coronavirus cases connected to the United House of Prayer for All People in Charlotte have been detected beyond Mecklenburg County, health officials said Friday. Two people with COVID-19 in Iredell County are connected to the church’s events and the health department is tracking a total of 101 confirmed cases. The church was ordered closed on Saturday.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
