COVID-19 hospitalizations spike in NC as positive test rates reach record highs
COVID-19 hospitalizations and test positivity rates both are reaching record highs in North Carolina, indicating the virus is spreading unabated even as it taxes health care systems more than at any point in the pandemic.
There were a record-high 3,576 people hospitalized with COVID-19 Sunday, according to data reported by 95% of the state’s hospitals. On Dec. 20, two Sundays ago, there were 2,783 people hospitalized with the virus — a difference of 793 people.
On Friday, the last day for which data is available, 13.6% of COVID-19 tests came back positive, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported. That brought the seven-day average of daily testing results to 14.2%, the highest rate since at least April. The average is seen as giving a better indication of COVID-19 spread because it better accounts for daily spikes and valleys.
Every day since Christmas has seen a double-digit positivity rate, including Thursday’s record-high 15.5%.
In a statement released Saturday, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said, “We begin 2021 in our most dangerous position in this pandemic. We have critically high rates of spread in much of our state.”
Cohen went on to urge North Carolinians to avoid gathering indoors with people from outside of their households. Any gatherings should, Cohen said, be small and outdoors with everyone masked the entire time.
Testing likely hasn’t started to account for cases from holiday gatherings, though. Fifteen days after Thanksgiving, Cohen released a statement saying the holiday’s impact was beginning to influence the state’s numbers.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has recommended that any North Carolinians over 65 years old or with significant health conditions should have all groceries and medicine delivered and avoid entering indoor spaces where someone is not wearing a mask. People under 40 who attended Christmas or New Year’s gatherings should assume they are infected even if they don’t have symptoms, the task force said, and isolate away from anyone with serious illness.
North Carolina reported 6,487 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday, the 10th-highest single-day total of the pandemic. The state also reported that 18 people with the virus had died, bringing the pandemic’s total toll to 6,910 North Carolinians.