Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Dec. 3
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We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Hospitalizations, cases hit daily records
At least 377,231 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 5,410 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday reported 5,637 new COVID-19 cases, up from 4,199 reported the day before and a single-day high in the state. Thursday’s count surpassed the previous daily record of 4,514 reported on Nov. 22.
Forty-four additional deaths were reported Thursday.
At least 2,101 people in North Carolina were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, the sixth consecutive day of record highs and the third time the state reported more than 2,000 coronavirus patients during the pandemic.
About 10.1% of tests were reported positive as of Tuesday, the latest day for which data are available. That’s above the 5% target set by health officials.
The news comes as Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state health department, is scheduled to speak Thursday about the coronavirus. A live stream will be available at ncdps.gov/storm-update.
UNC Charlotte coach tested positive for COVID-19
Will Healy, the head coach of UNC Charlotte’s football team, tested positive for the coronavirus in November.
It would have prevented Healy from coaching — if every one of the 49ers regularly-scheduled football games hadn’t been canceled last month, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“I was very surprised by my positive result,” Healy said. “If we weren’t testing three times a week as a program, I never would have known.”
The coach said he had no symptoms, but he and his wife, Emily, likely had it at the same time. She wasn’t tested but lost her senses of smell and taste, Healy told the Observer. He worked remotely while quarantining with his family but is “now back in the office and on the practice field, the Observer reported.
The 49ers’ next game is scheduled at noon Sunday at home against Western Kentucky.
The team last played on Halloween, with holdups over COVID-19 preventing them from playing in November. There have been at least eight cancellations or postponements so far, Healy told the Observer.
“I hate it for our guys,” he said. “Every time I have to stand up there like the Grinch and tell them that Christmas is canceled. And every single time I hate it.”
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Brewery shuts down after employee exposed
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte announced Thursday it’s temporarily closing after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.
Officials at the brewery said the risk of exposure is “extremely low” given that the employee was wearing a mask, but they said it needed to close “out of a substantial abundance of caution,” the Charlotte Observer reported.
Olde Mecklenburg said it will reopen “once all employees are cleared and the sanitization is complete.” It is the third brewery in Charlotte to close due to COVID-19 in recent days, according to the Observer.
Cooper says no measures are off the table
While touring a medical device manufacturer in Pittsboro on Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper said no measures to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in North Carolina are off the table as case counts continue to climb.
He said some are ignoring the current guidelines, and the state is focused on “enforcing the rules that we have in place.”
“But everything is on the table in the weeks to come,” Cooper said.
The tour was at a new manufacturing facility opened by Gilero, which is based in Morrisville. The facility opened in a vacant hosiery mill as the pandemic hit earlier this year and started making face shields and self-contained negative pressure units for hospitals, The News & Observer reported.
Duke postpones another basketball game
Duke University postponed its second basketball game of the season Thursday, citing COVID-19 issues with its opponent, Elon University.
The team there is in quarantine and isolation after a person in the program tested positive, The News & Observer reported.
Duke and Elon were scheduled to play at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday as part of the Duke Classic multi-team event, jointly hosted by Duke and Howard in Washington, D.C.
The Blue Devils are still slated to play Bellarmine Friday as the first game of the Duke Classic.
Cohen outlines vaccine plan
COVID-19 vaccines could arrive as early as mid-December in North Carolina but it will likely take months to build up enough supply for the entire population.
High priority health care workers will likely be the first to receive a vaccine, Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, said during a news conference Thursday. She also said North Carolina is slated to receive the Pfizer vaccine once it receives federal approval.
But not all hospitals will receive some of the first 85,000 samples sent to the state.
Cohen additionally emphasized the vaccine’s safety, saying it was developed by “career scientists” with a high portion of non-white patients participating in clinical trials.
“Corners were not cut,” she said.
Meck jail hit with COVID-19 outbreak
A rash of new coronavirus cases has hit the Mecklenburg County Jail with at least 65 cases as of Thursday — more than double what it was the day after Thanksgiving.
At least 255 inmates are being quarantined, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Officials say the uptick in cases was likely caused by staff who came to work “not knowing that they themselves were contagious with the virus,” according to the statement. Thirteen staffers have tested positive for COVID-19.
Most of the inmates who have been infected aren’t showing any symptoms, and only two have required infirmary care, the Charlotte Observer reported. None have been hospitalized.
Igloo dining comes to Charlotte
So-called dining igloos have popped up in Charlotte in an effort to protect restaurant-goers from the coronavirus.
The Goodyear House in NoDa is the first to offer the service, and The Mother Earth Group is seating guests in its greenhouses as a kind of psuedo igloo, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“We knew we had to figure out something for the winter months, and we researched everything from greenhouses to these igloos,” said Sean Potter, general manager and partner at The Goodyear House. “They were popping up all over Europe, and we decided to place an order for four. Who knew they would sell out so fast? When we went to order more, they were out of stock.”
Health experts say the dining igloos help better isolate patrons and limit exposure, but they also require proper sanitation, ventilation and space restrictions. Because they are generally compact, it’s additionally important for people to “dine as a family unit or pandemic pod,” according to the Observer.
ECU leaders to be on furlough due to coronavirus-related issues
Several administrators at East Carolina University will be on furlough as the COVID-19 pandemic deals a financial blow to the college.
Workers this year have been put on furlough and gotten salary cuts as the campus lost millions of dollars. In the fall semester, spiking coronavirus cases forced the Greenville school to shutter dorms and move to online classes.
“Like the previous decisions regarding furloughs, this decision was not made lightly,” Ron Mitchelson, ECU interim chancellor, said in a statement. “Though it can’t make up for the losses experienced by some of our colleagues, I feel it’s important that our leadership take on some of the burden that we are asking of others.”
The chancellor and others are expected to take furlough days starting Tuesday, and the university expects the strategy will save about $250,000, The News & Observer reported.
State to provide free COVID-19 testing for NC schools
Public schools in North Carolina will get free COVID-19 testing supplies under a new program.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday said districts and charter schools can start applying for rapid antigen tests. The news came as the federal government is giving the state 3.1 million nasal swab tests to help screen for the coronavirus.
The tests, which will require a parent’s permission, could be sent to schools by Dec. 14. Districts are expected to work with health officials for students and school workers with coronavirus symptoms or who may have been exposed to the disease, The News & Observer reported.
NC town to have Christmas parade as COVID-19 cases rise
A North Carolina town is planning to hold a holiday parade with up to 300 spectators, despite pleas from health officials.
The Franklin County Health Department has warned that local coronavirus case counts are climbing to record highs in Youngsville, northeast of Raleigh. The county has said a parade would be a violation of coronavirus-related orders from Gov. Roy Cooper.
Though other places have put holiday plans on hold this year, Youngsville is scheduled to have a mile-long parade on Saturday. Town Manager Phil Cordeiro has said the event is protected under the First Amendment and that the town is “confident we can safely hold our event.”
“It’s just been a really bad year and we’re trying to do something to lighten people’s spirits and give them a little hope,” Mayor Fonzie Flowers said. “We don’t want it to be a situation where people don’t feel safe.”
Families have until Monday to apply for $335 COVID check
Qualified families in North Carolina have until 2 p.m. Monday to apply for a $335 COVID-19 relief check from the state, thanks to a court order last month extending the deadline to apply.
To apply for the money meant to help offset costs brought on by the pandemic, families can go to 335forNC.com or call 800-215-5988.
North Carolina’s Extra Credit grant program was signed into law in early September, the Charlotte Observer reported. About 1 million households qualified automatically and have received the checks.
But there are tens of thousands of families in the state who didn’t earn enough in 2019 to file a state tax return, meaning they had to apply for the money. The program initially had an Oct. 15 application deadline, but a lawsuit filed on behalf of nonprofit groups and several low-income residents prompted a Wake County judge to push the deadline back.
More than 10,000 families have since applied under the new deadline, Charlotte lawyer Adam Doerr told the Observer.
Creator of Slim Jim recipe dies from COVID-19 complications
Alonzo T. “Lon” Adams II, a Raleigh food scientist who created Slim Jim, has died from complications of the coronavirus in North Carolina.
The 95-year-old died Saturday in Raleigh, The News & Observer reported, citing his obituary.
“It feels wrong to say that it’s shocking that someone that old passed away, but it really was shocking,” Andrew Adams, his 29-year-old grandson, told The N&O on Tuesday.
“For someone to have been so healthy before the pandemic, and then just that rapidly be diagnosed and passing away, it was pretty shocking,” he said.
Adams contracted the coronavirus at the assisted living facility where he resided. He tested positive and died about a week later, his grandson said.
Adams was born in Iowa and served in World War II. He attended school at St. Ambrose College and received a master’s degree from Iowa State University. Adams moved to Raleigh shortly thereafter, where he created the current formula for the Slim Jim meat snack.
His business card listed him as the “Director of Meat Technology.”
Some UNC faculty call for remote spring semester
Dozens of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members signed a letter pushing for online classes in the spring as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise in North Carolina.
“Given current conditions and UNC’s track record, the plans for spring are doomed to repeat too many of the failures of the fall,” the group said in a letter published Wednesday in The Daily Tar Heel.
Faculty members say housing and in-person classes should be available in certain circumstances, The News & Observer reported. Those who work on campus should get hazard pay and personal protective equipment, according to the group.
UNC plans to offer in-person and online classes starting in January, when it will mandate COVID-19 tests for students and other people returning to campus. The school was among several in the state that transitioned to online learning when cases rose early on in the fall semester.
Audit criticizes COVID-19 relief spending
An audit was critical of the way North Carolina education officials spent money meant to help students during the coronavirus pandemic.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction didn’t monitor to make sure funds from the federal CARES Act “accomplished exactly what they were meant to be spent for,” according to State Auditor Beth Wood.
The money was meant for student meals and a “summer supplemental learning program,” The News & Observer reported Wednesday.
“We fully stand by how we distributed nutrition funds,” the education department said in a statement. “Additional requirements that some would demand would have likely risked that already vulnerable children across NC would have gone hungry. Put another way, when it comes to trying to feed hungry children during a pandemic, DPI did not let the perfect stand in the way of the good.”
After record testing, NC hospitals prepare for case surge
Charlotte-area testing for COVID-19 hit its highest levels in the days before Thanksgiving, officials say.
Interest in getting tests rose as people planned visits with family and friends for the holiday, said Dr. Jennifer Womack, an internist at Tryon Medical Partners.
“We actually had so much demand that we had to stop scheduling patients who just wanted a test before traveling to make space for the sick people,” Womack said. “The demand was just so, so high. We just couldn’t keep it up.”
In Mecklenburg County, nearly 110,000 people were tested in November, up from about 89,700 the month before, the Charlotte Observer reported Wednesday.
Recent daily hospitalization and case counts in the Charlotte area have topped previous highs seen in July. A new tool shows ZIP codes with the highest infection rates are home to congregant living centers and “transient” populations, such as college students and homeless residents.
The testing volume was reported as Triangle-area hospitals are preparing for an expected post-Thanksgiving increase in coronavirus cases. Major medical systems in the region have had employees out of work due to COVID-19.
“We are seeing our employees get sick,” said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, infectious disease specialist at the Duke University School of Medicine. “It’s not typically that they’re getting sick from work. It’s mainly because they do what the rest of us do. They go to the supermarket, and they have to be out.”
NC store asks customers not to wear face coverings
A North Carolina store is asking its patrons to not wear masks as the coronavirus continues its spread in the state.
A new sign at the Wendell General Store reads: “We request that you not wear a face covering, for the safety of our customers and staff. Regardless, we will respect your choice to wear one in these times,” The News & Observer reported Wednesday.
Regina Harmon, owner of the store east of Raleigh, initially said she wouldn’t comment beyond the message on the sign. But in an interview with The N&O after the article published Wednesday, she said the sign has since been removed.
A new sign now reads “Masks not required, exceptions to every rule.”
The posting comes after another that said wearing face coverings inside the business was optional.
The store’s sign falsely claims that its mask policy is “based on the law in North Carolina” that targeted the Ku Klux Klan and prohibited masks in public, The N&O reported. State lawmakers earlier this year added an exemption to that policy for health purposes.
Executive orders from Gov. Roy Cooper require people to wear masks inside public buildings and requires businesses to refuse to let in customers without face coverings.
NC research finds green tea may be able to slow COVID-19
Components in green tea and other plants may reduce the speed of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to research from a North Carolina scientist.
De-Yu Xie, an N.C. State University professor of plant and microbial biology, found flavonoids and other chemical compounds can attach to enzymes that aid in virus growth, The News & Observer reported Tuesday.
“Plants use these compounds to protect themselves, so it is not surprising that plant leaves and skins contain these beneficial compounds,” he said.
Xie conducted simulations and lab tests and hopes to eventually conduct human trials. He said the compounds found in green tea aren’t meant to replace vaccines or therapies.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 7:08 AM.
