New daily COVID-19 cases hit record high in North Carolina
The state of North Carolina reported a record number of new daily coronavirus cases Thursday: 2,885.
That number from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services brings the running total of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 269,021 statewide since the start of the pandemic.
Daily numbers have trended consistently high in recent weeks. This is the third-straight day that new cases topped 2,000.
“With another record day of cases reported, we are seeing warning signs in our metrics that we need to heed,” wrote DHHS communications officer Caroline Bass in an email to the News & Observer. “As we look forward to Halloween this weekend, we know holidays have been an opportunity for this virus to spread. People can celebrate Halloween with lower risk activities.”
The percentage of positive tests has also been consistently higher this month than health officials want. The state reported that 6.4% of tests were positive Tuesday, the latest day for which data were available.
State health officials have said that the percent positive rate should be under 5%.
Hospitalization rates
The number of hospitalized patients was 1,181 on Thursday. It has continued to drop slightly after DHHS earlier this week reported the state’s second-highest totals for hospitalized patients since the pandemic began: 1,214 people.
There are still over nearly 5,000 empty hospital beds and 467 empty ICU beds.
“They have continued to creep up,” said N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper Wednesday at a news conference. “We have plenty of hospital capacity. Plenty of ICU capacity, plenty of ventilator capacity. But you are concerned when you see a creep up.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 12:40 PM.
