Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Dec. 4
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Hospitalizations hit record high
At least 382,534 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 5,467 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reported 5,303 new COVID-19 cases, down from 5,637 the day before. Thursday’s total had been the highest since the start of the pandemic, surpassing the previous daily record of 4,514 new cases reported on Nov. 22.
Fifty-seven additional deaths were reported Friday.
At least 2,157 people in North Carolina were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Friday, another all-time high and the fourth time the state reported more than 2,000 coronavirus patients during the pandemic.
About 11.2% of tests were reported positive as of Wednesday, the latest day for which data are available. That’s above the 5% target set by health officials.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state health department, on Thursday said the latest counts are reflective of COVID-19 spread from Thanksgiving.
Labor Department won’t issue safety rules for coronavirus
The N.C. Department of Labor won’t institute safety regulations to protect workers from COVID-19, Commissioner Cherie Berry said in a letter sent to advocacy groups on Nov. 9.
She said taking such action would be outside her departmental authority.
“While I am not dismissing the tragic deaths that have occurred as a result of this virus, statistically, the virus has not been proven likely to cause death or serious physical harm from the perspective of an occupational hazard,” Berry wrote.
Worker advocates told The News & Observer that Berry has a record of taking the “deregulatory approach” during her five consecutive terms as commissioner.
“She’s essentially saying, ‘I’m abandoning my mission to protect workers because I’m buying into myths and lies that COVID-19 is not serious and we really don’t know that much about it.’ And that’s just not true,” said Debbie Berkowitz, director of the Worker Safety and Health program at the National Employment Law Project and former chief of staff at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “This is really a dereliction of duty.”
Berry will retire in January. Josh Dobson, who like Berry is a Republican, will replace her.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday he hopes the Labor Department will “be more proactive under Dobson.”
“We’ve provided a lot of guidance to businesses on how to protect their employees and their customers. And many North Carolina businesses have followed that guidance and even have done more, but there are always some that don’t,” he said while touring a PPE manufacturing plant in Pittsboro. “I look forward to talking with incoming Commissioner Dobson about things that we might be able to do.”
Hornets guard tests positive for COVID-19
Malik Monk, guard for the Hornets basketball team in Charlotte, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Hornets coach James Borrego announced Friday.
He is asymptomatic but expected to be out of training camp for several days, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“He’ll probably be out a few more days,” Borrego said during a media conference call. “Unfortunately, he’s been out the last few days. Look forward to getting him back soon. We’re following all the protocols, and making sure he’s healthy, No. 1, but he is asymptomatic.”
A source had confirmed Wednesday that a Hornet player was one of 48 NBA players who tested positive during screening.
Tool shows possible wait for vaccine in NC
A new online tool by The New York Times and public health experts uses age, county of residence, profession and underlying health conditions to determine how many people are ahead of you to get the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine.
The Times was careful to note the results are just one possibility, and the amount of time for distribution “is also an open question.”
Health officials in North Carolina have said the first 85,000 doses will go to health care workers and staff, followed by residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Children, however, likely won’t be included in the initial slate of vaccinations until more trials are completed.
Gov. Roy Cooper, who is 63 and lives in Wake County, is behind about 8.5 million people in line for the coronavirus vaccine — putting him at the back of the line, according to the tool.
A 33-year-old health care worker with no underlying health conditions living in Durham County, meanwhile, is behind “very few” other people in both the state and the county to get the vaccine.
Virus surges in rural North Carolina
Nash County, east of Raleigh, has experienced the greatest percentage increase in coronavirus-related deaths since Oct. 1. Its death toll is the fourth largest, behind some of the state’s larger metropolitan counties like Gaston, Mecklenburg and Guilford.
“That’s the easy part, to do the numbers,” Bill Hill, who has been the Nash County health director for 42 years, told The News & Observer. “It’s really hard to accept these deaths and cases, and some are much worse than others.”
Nash is one of several rural counties in North Carolina where case counts have surged in recent weeks after all but missing the first wave that came crashing through the state over the summer.
Madison County on the Tennessee border has quadrupled its coronavirus cases over the last two months. They’ve trippled in Mitchel and Alexander, and cases in at least 29 mostly rural counties “have at least doubled from what they were in early October,” The N&O reported.
Avery County in Western North Carolina was the last county to report a COVID-19 case in May. Now it has the highest case rate in the the state, The N&O reported.
Part of the problem is attributed to people failing to follow public health guidelines, like wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.
“There’s a little bit of, ‘You’re not going to make me wear a mask’ kind of mentality, I think,” said Bob Davis, one of the restaurant owners in Nash County.
Judge asks for help with NC prison management during COVID-19
A North Carolina judge on Friday appointed an outside person to help with prison management as the coronavirus continues its spread.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier made the decision after civil rights groups asked for oversight. The judge appointed Thomas K. Maher, a Duke University administrator, The News & Observer reported.
The state on Monday said it began tests every two weeks for people who work at prisons with ongoing or recent outbreaks. During the pandemic, COVID-19 cases have forced some facilities to close or move inmates to other prisons.
The news comes as Mecklenburg County jail has reported its highest-ever spike in coronavirus cases.
Infections at the Charlotte-area jail have gone up since Nov. 18, when no one was reported sick. There were 65 cases as of Thursday, officials say.
The surge came after officials say staffers worked without “knowing that they themselves were contagious with the virus.” At least 255 inmates were put in quarantine, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
State GOP schedules in-person events, meetings despite COVID-19
The North Carolina Republican Party is planning five face-to-face events during the holiday season, including two meetings, two dinners and a lunch.
The plans come as daily coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are on the rise across the state. Tim Wigginton, a spokesperson for the GOP, said steps to protect against the coronavirus will be encouraged at the events.
While the meetings have a virtual option, Wigginton on Thursday said he was still waiting on attendee numbers, The News & Observer reported.
The events are being held in venues that have stricter indoor capacity restrictions than restaurants, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. One of the venues is in Surry County, which is in the highest tier on the statewide coronavirus alert map.
Wake schools report new cases; Durham schools lose students
The Wake County school district reported dozens of new coronavirus cases in the past week.
Officials on Thursday said the 68 cases were spread across 49 schools. Thirty-one of those infected were students, The News & Observer reported.
“We’ve had an increasing number of students coming in each week as well as just an increasing number of contacts between people,” Tim Simmons, chief communications officer for the district, said Tuesday at a school board meeting. “You don’t want to see increasing cases, but it’s to be expected.”
Wake is the state’s largest school district, with 157,000 students and nearly 200 schools. Health officials have said it’s reasonable for the school system to expect one new COVID-19 case per school each week, according to The N&O.
The news comes as Durham Public Schools saw its enrollment for the beginning of the school year drop compared to 2019. Though some of the decline is due to students attending charter schools, parents also have opted to keep their kindergartners at home for another year or start home schooling, according to Chip Sudderth, a district spokesperson.
“DPS enrollment decline was unexpected but understandable considering the toll that COVID has taken on our community,” Sudderth said.
Vaccine plan outlined
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 state’s entire population.
High-priority health care workers will likely be the first to receive a vaccine, Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state 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.
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.
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 the virus 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 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 said.
“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.”
.JPG "CharlotteDukeFootball (1).JPG")
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.
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 Elon team 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.
New cases in Mecklenburg County jail
At least 65 new coronavirus cases were reported at the Mecklenburg County Jail as of Thursday — more than double the number 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 furloughed
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.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 7:20 AM.
