Thanksgiving COVID-19 case spike hits Triangle even as hospitals prepare for vaccine
COVID-19 numbers in the Triangle have risen over the past week, a development local public health officials have in part attributed to Thanksgiving travel and gatherings.
In his weekly video message Friday, Rod Jenkins, the Durham County health director, said, “We expected significant increases following the Thanksgiving holiday, and we are starting to truly feel those consequences that we predicted. As we move forward into the fall and winter, don’t let this holiday season be a reason we see even larger, faster spread.”
From Dec. 7 to Dec. 13, Durham saw 900 residents test positive for COVID-19, a marked jump from the 559 confirmed infections between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6.
Wake County recorded 3,389 infections over the past week, compared to 3,022 the week before. And Orange County had 273 residents test positive, compared to 243 the week before.
In his message, Jenkins referenced Wednesday’s data, which included an average of 112 new cases a day over the past week. By Sunday, that average had moved up to about 129 new cases each day.
Wake County averaged about 484 new cases each day over the last week, up from about 432 two weeks ago. Orange County saw only a slight increase, from about 35 cases per day two weeks ago to 39.
DHHS elevated both Durham and Wake counties from yellow to orange status in last week’s county alert system update, meaning they are seeing “substantial” community spread. Both counties have case rates over the last 14 days above 101 per 100,000 people, with Durham at 342.8 per 100,000 at the time of the report and Wake at 472.4 per 100,000.
The state health department also describes hospitals in the counties as seeing “moderate impacts” from COVID-19, based on a composite score calculated using the percent of hospitalizations from COVID-19, people visiting the emergency department with COVID-19, staffed open beds and the number of “critical staffing shortages.”
At the time of the report, Orange County had a case rate of 295 per 100,000 people over the last 14 days, but the virus was having a low impact on hospitals there, per DHHS, as well as a 2.9% test positivity rate over the last two weeks. Due to the positivity rate and hospital impact, DHHS classified Orange as a county with significant community spread, a step down from the classification it gave Durham and Wake.
Orange County was one of only 18 counties in the state that was in the significant community spread category, with 34 classified as having substantial community spread and 48 as critical.
Friday, a new phase of Gov. Roy Cooper’s Phase 3 began, including a modified stay at home order that calls for residents to stay home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The order exempts people traveling to and from work while also noting that businesses must close at 10 p.m. It is set to remain in effect until Jan. 8.
COVID-19 vaccine
Public health officials are also expressing some hope, with the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine shipped Sunday and the Food and Drug Administration poised to consider an Emergency Use Authorization for Moderna’s vaccine this week.
Triangle hospitals that have the freezers to store the Pfizer vaccine at necessary super-cold temperatures included Duke University Health System and UNC Health System, The News & Observer has reported. Wake Med hospitals in Cary and Raleigh are on a list of 42 facilities that will receive vaccines packaged in dry ice during the first week of distribution.
Health care workers and staff who work with and around COVID-19 patients will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to North Carolina’s vaccine plan. From there, staff and residents of long-term care facilities would be next, followed by adults with at least two conditions that put them at high risk from COVID-19.
In Durham, Jenkins urged residents to stay home as much as possible and treat the virus as an “urgent” situation during the coming weeks.
“A vaccine is just around the corner, but please know that we still have many months ahead before enough people can receive both vaccine doses to effectively start ending COVID-19 in our community,” Jenkins said.
Testing
Wake County announced that this week, it will start to provide free drive-up COVID-19 testing in public parks. Tests will be available from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays, and then from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
This week, those parks will be: Green Road Park in Northeast Raleigh, 4201 Green Road; Barwell Road Park in Southeast Raleigh, 5857 Barwell Park Drive; and Lions Park in East Raleigh, 516 Dennis Avenue. Parks with available testing will rotate each week, according to Wake County’s announcement.
Those seeking tests do not need to have insurance or an appointment, the county said.
“We’re literally trying to make testing as pleasant and easy as a walk in the park,” Eugene Chalwe, the county’s COVID-19 operations manager, said in a prepared statement.
COVID-19 and schools
As case rates rise in Wake, the county school board is poised to reconsider its gradual return to in-person learning.
After starting the year virtually, PreK-3 and K-12 special education students in regional programs are now attending classes each day. The News & Observer has reported that students in fourth through eighth grades are in a rotation, with one week spent in the classroom and two weeks spent learning virtually. High school students are learning online, but are participating in some extracurricular activities.
But, the N&O has reported, cases have risen each week since students started returning to in-person learning in late October. Last Thursday, Wake County schools reported 80 new COVID-19 cases at 56 schools. Of the new cases, 47 were among staff and 33 were among students.
Keith Sutton, chairman of the Wake County school board, told the N&O that the number of employees who are having to quarantine due to the virus is key to the board’s reconsideration of in-person learning.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult to staff the schools,” Sutton said.
The Wake board will discuss the matter at a special work session Monday, possibly taking a vote as soon as Tuesday.
Durham, Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County have all continued with virtual learning this semester, with some limited exceptions.
Districts across the state are reconsidering in-person learning as COVID-19 cases spike, the N&O has reported.
Both Johnston County and Charlotte Mecklenburg schools switched to remote learning after cases began to rise.
According to The N&O, Johnston County Superintendent Eric Bracy said, “The Thanksgiving spike is real. ... Also, I think the Christmas spike could be greater than the Thanksgiving spike because people travel or gather around more people as they did during the Thanksgiving holiday.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 6:02 PM.