NC adds nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases. Positive tests more than double target.
North Carolina’s coronavirus caseload increased by nearly 5,000 Monday as state health officials welcomed the state’s first doses of vaccine.
The state Department of Health and Human Services reported 441,365 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up 4,770 from Sunday’s total.
The updated total comes as North Carolina continues to reach new highs in its COVID-19 caseload. Just over a week ago, the state added 6,000 in a single day for the first time, only to reach 7,500 on Friday. State health officials attribute the soaring numbers to Thanksgiving travel and warn against further holiday gatherings.
It also comes as the state has received its first doses of vaccine, approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the weekend. Gov. Roy Cooper announced the shipment is a limited supply but a “remarkable achievement for science and health.”
“There’s good news in the fight against COVID,” DHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a taped message posted to Twitter. “Tested, safe and effective vaccines will available to all starting with those most vulnerable to the virus.”
Friday, the day North Carolina began at modified stay-at-home order, Cooper, Cohen and Secretary Erik Hooks of the Department of Public Safety sent letters to local elected officials across the state to ask for their help in slowing down the coronavirus.
The letter asks leaders to adopt local ordinances to establish civil penalties for those who violate the governor’s executive orders.
The state leaders also sent them an advisory from Attorney General Josh Stein’s office that reinforces that local governments have the power to put such ordinances in place.
“The Emergency Management Act expressly states that it supplements, rather than restricts, the ordinary power of local governments to make ordinances,” Deputy General Counsel Blake Thomas writes.
Cities, towns and counties are allowed to create ordinances that are more restrictive than state law, Stein said. Through the pandemic, some places, such as Orange County and Durham, have had tighter restrictions than the statewide order. They since have dropped the more restrictive limits and now follow the state’s.
DHHS reported 2,553 COVID-19 patients in hospitals statewide, a comparatively high number but short of the high mark of 2,577 set Saturday.
Space remained available with 474 intensive-care beds reported empty statewide, up slightly from Sunday, but health officials warn that space could quickly dwindle if cases continue to spike.
The state’s death toll from COVID-19 reached 5,855 Monday, up 32 fatalities from Sunday. Of those, nearly 60% struck people older than 75. Another 37% of the patients who died were between 50 and 74.
The state also passed the 6 million mark for coronavirus tests given statewide. Of those tests, DHHS reported the level of positive results at 11.6% — more than twice the state’s 5% goal.
North Carolina reported 365,273 presumed recovered cases Monday — a weekly estimate. The state estimates a patient is recovered 14 days from the date of the COVID-19 test if they have not been hospitalized. The estimated median recovery time for patients who have been hospitalized is 28 days from the COVID-19 test.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 12:03 PM with the headline "NC adds nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases. Positive tests more than double target.."