Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Dec. 11
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases hit record high
At least 423,623 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 5,752 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reported 7,540 new COVID-19 cases, up from 5,556 the day before. Friday’s count was the highest ever reported in the state, surpassing the previous single-day record of 6,495 cases set on Wednesday.
Thirty-eight additional coronavirus-related deaths were reported Friday.
At least 2,514 people in North Carolina were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Friday, marking the ninth consecutive day of record patient counts.
About 10.4% 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.
Health director urges guests at NC bar to get tested
Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris said anyone who went to QC Social Lounge in Uptown Charlotte on Thursday should wait five to seven days to get tested and isolate at home after videos showed a crowded dance floor and people not wearing masks.
“We’ve already talked to CMPD about checking into that,” Harris said Friday at a news conference. A second event at the bar was reportedly planned for Friday.
Footage posted online show “more than 100 people shoulder-to-shoulder buying drinks, dancing and smiling,” the Charlotte Observer reported. The condemnation on social media was swift, with some calling the behavior “insulting” and “offensive.”
“I’d be very surprised ... if there was not COVID in that space last night,” Harris said. “They took the risk of going to that facility. The problem is it’s not just a risk to them, it’s a risk to others in the community when they expose themselves like that.”
Charlotte hospitals could exceed capacity, doctors say
Top doctors at Atrium Health and Novant Health in Mecklenburg County are urging residents to comply with safety precautions as hospitals near capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.
Though they currently have enough capacity to continue caring for those patients over the next month, doctors say the short-term outlook depends on whether people follow health guidelines, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“We all have the ability to act so we can hopefully dampen the curve,” Atrium Health’s Dr. Lewis McCurdy, an infectious disease specialist, said during a news conference with Mecklenburg County officials.
The warnings come as researchers at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill released a report projecting local hospitals could become overwhelmed within the next four to five weeks if the current trend continues.
Courts closed for 30 days as cases climb
All non-essential activity in North Carolina’s courts came to a halt Friday by order of N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley.
Beasley closed the courts for 30 days, citing the rising number of coronavirus cases, The News & Observer reported. There are 291 confirmed COVID-19 cases among judicial employees in North Carolina — including 40 in the past week, Beasley said.
“Scaling back operations for the next 30 days will give local court officials an opportunity to do much needed planning to ensure that our courts are in the best possible position to protect the health and safety of employees and the public in 2021,” Beasley wrote.
Anti-mask protest planned at NC mall
A protest against North Carolina’s face mask mandate is expected to take place at a Charlotte-area mall during the Christmas shopping season.
The event, called “‘Trash the Mask’ holiday dinner & shopping,” is set for Friday night at Concord Mills. The gathering is described on Facebook as a “mask-free dinner at the food court followed by a shopping event.”
Health officials have urged people to wear face coverings in public to help slow the transmission of COVID-19. Concord Mills is in Cabarrus County, where state health officials say community spread of the virus is “critical,” the Charlotte Observer reported.
“To have members of our community encouraging others to gather together in an unsafe manner, is irresponsible and disrespectful to those working so hard to keep people healthy and alive,” Dr. Bonnie Coyle, director of Cabarrus Health Alliance, said in a statement.
Simon, the company that operates the shopping center, will hand out masks to people who aren’t wearing them and “will ask those continuing to deny using a mask to vacate mall property,” according to the city of Concord.
NC Republican leaders hold party despite COVID-19
The N.C. Republican Party ignored coronavirus-related restrictions when they hosted a party and meetings last weekend.
While North Carolina requires masks to be worn indoors when gathering with people not from the same household, photos show some attendees not wearing masks at the Surry County events. The county is in the red zone on the state’s three-tiered coronavirus map, meaning the COVID-19 spread there is “critical,” The News & Observer reported Friday.
“Elected officials who care about our overwhelmed health workers and the lives of our most vulnerable people will cancel parties and mask up during a critical time of record-high cases and hospitalizations,” Dory MacMillan, press secretary for Gov. Roy Cooper, said in a statement.
The N.C. Republican Party has refused to tell The N&O how many guests attended the events. Before the gatherings, GOP spokesman Tim Wigginton said the party was being held at a restaurant that was subject to the state’s 50% capacity rule for restaurants.
But the state health department said venues being used as event or meeting spaces have different guidelines, which cap attendees at either 100 people or 30%.
“The NCGOP followed all state and federal guidelines and mandates, including crowd-size limits, temperature checks, required masks and social distancing,” Wigginton said in a statement.
Wake County schools report record case count
A record number of new COVID-19 cases was reported in the Wake County school district.
The district added at least 80 cases in the past week, The News & Observer reported. Among those, 33 students and 47 staff members were infected, data show.
The cases were reported at 56 of more than 190 schools in the district. Health officials have said it’s reasonable to expect one new case each week in every school.
The new infections brings the total to 299 cases reported since Oct. 26, the day students started coming back to campuses for in-person classes.
This semester, thousands of students are taking online-only classes.
NC jail placed on 2-day lockdown after cases rise
The Mecklenburg County jail is on lockdown for two days as health care workers respond to a spike in coronavirus cases linked to the facility.
At least 107 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, up from 74 on Monday. Also, about 20 employees who didn’t know they were sick received positive test results, the Charlotte-area sheriff’s office said on Thursday.
The department previously said the rising caseload was due to staff who didn’t know they had contracted the virus and returned to work after Thanksgiving.
Wellpath, which is contracted to provide medical care at the jail, will conduct testing through the weekend, The Charlotte Observer reported.
“In order to facilitate contact tracing as efficiently as possible while minimizing additional exposures and potential spread of the virus, the Detention Center has eliminated all visitation and movement of residents for at least the next 48 hours,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Thursday.
Curfew begins Friday
Gov. Roy Cooper’s modified stay-at-home order, which includes a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., begins Friday.
Cooper made the announcement Tuesday, when the state updated its data to show more than 48 of North Carolina’s 100 counties are identified as “red,” meaning there is critical community spread of COVID-19.
Drastic orders could be next if curfew doesn’t slow spread
Public health experts say stricter orders such as closing restaurant dining rooms could be on the horizon if ooper’s new curfew fails to slow the spread of COVID-19 in North Carolina.
But the chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners said there aren’t any plans in place yet, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, have urged residents to wear masks, wash their hands, keep 6 feet of distance and follow safety precautions to keep the virus in check. But some say that isn’t enough as case numbers continue to surge and hospital beds fill up.
“The governor and Mandy Cohen can talk until (they’re) blue in the face — but if people don’t abide by what they say and the measures they prescribe are not enforced, then they won’t have the intended effect,” said Jim Thomas, a social epidemiologist at UNC Chapel Hill who studies pandemic ethics.
“Those restrictions ... are really driven by the depleted number of ICU beds to care for people. Heaven help us if we were to have some other disaster on top of this. We have no margin left.”
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has said it will issue citations for breaking the curfew only as a last resort, according to the Observer.
Vaccine could be months away, Cohen says
The coronavirus vaccine likely won’t be available for widespread distribution in North Carolina until the spring, health officials said Thursday.
While North Carolina is slated to receive more than 85,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week for front-line workers in about half the state’s hospitals, officials haven’t been told how much of the vaccine to expect in the weeks that follow.
“We’re talking about limited supplies at first, and so we don’t really know yet what the time sequence is going to be in terms of us having vaccine that is more widely available to the general public,” Cohen said at a press conference Thursday. “It is not going to be in the early part of 2021.”
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended authorizing the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use. But individuals won’t be able to get the vaccine until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes up with guidelines for distribution, The News & Observer reported.
Fewer than half of NC residents say they will get COVID-19 vaccine
As North Carolina plans to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine, 40% of residents say they would get one.
The other 60% of North Carolinians wouldn’t get an FDA-approved vaccine or weren’t sure, according to survey results released Thursday from the Elon University Poll.
Some of the 1,390 survey respondents said they wouldn’t get vaccinated due to concerns about getting the disease or that the vaccine was developed too fast, results show. Dave Wessner, a biology professor at Davidson College, said it’s not possible to contract the coronavirus from the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna.
The results come as health officials have been concerned that mistrust about vaccines could impact the fight against the coronavirus.
“Our best bet for managing this pandemic is to have a much higher percentage of people receiving the vaccine when they can,” said Melinda Forthofer, UNC Charlotte public health sciences professor.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Wednesday that “some degree of normality” could be possible for the United States by late 2021 if 75% to 80% of people get vaccinated against COVID-19.
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 7:09 AM.
