How Wake, Durham and Orange are doing after pandemic’s deadliest month
North Carolina reported more than 2,500 deaths from COVID-19 in January — making it the state’s deadliest month of the pandemic so far.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 2,587 deaths over the course of the month, 1,100 more than in December, the previous pandemic high. The day the deaths are reported is not necessarily the day that they occurred.
As thousands of new cases continue to crop up each day, and vaccination efforts around the state ramp up, here’s how Wake, Durham and Orange counties are doing this week.
New cases, vaccinations in Wake
In the past 14 days, 8,269 new cases have been reported in Wake County, according to DHHS data released Sunday. Of those, 4,022 were reported in the past week. The county has seen 427 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began — a figure which grew by 14 in the past week.
In total, Wake has seen 65,128 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Over the 14 days ending Friday, an average of 8.3% of tests in Wake County were returning positive. That’s 3.3 percentage points higher than the 5% figure health officials have targeted across the state. But it’s still down from a week ago, when an average of 8.6% of tests in Wake were returning positive.
The most recent available data on vaccinations was posted by DHHS Thursday. The COVID-19 vaccine requires two doses to reach full effectiveness.
According to the most recent available information, Wake County has administered 66,194 first doses of the vaccine, an increase of 27,541 from last week. Second doses grew by 3,653 to reach a total of 12,655 doses administered.
In the coming week, Wake will receive four times as many first doses of the vaccine as it had last week, The News & Observer reported Saturday. County officials told The N&O that the change reflected new distribution guidelines by DHHS that place a greater priority on population, and that the new vaccine supply would allow the county to vaccinate people more quickly.
New cases, vaccinations in Durham
There were 1,730 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the last 14 days in Durham County, DHHS data shows, or which 876 were reported in the past week. The county has seen 175 deaths from COVID-19, six of which occurred in the past week.
Since March, when the pandemic first began, 19,356 cases have been confirmed in Durham.
In Durham, 7.6% of tests were returning positive, according to the 14-day average from Friday. That’s a bit lower than the 8% of tests that were coming back positive as of last week.
As of Thursday, 28,399 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Durham County. That’s 10,600 more than last week. There have been 8,110 second doses administered in the county — a 2,138 increase from last week.
The Durham County Department of Public Health said Thursday it would be temporarily halting vaccine appointment scheduling due to a shortage of supply. The N&O learned Saturday from Wake officials that Durham will receive more than double the number of vaccines previously expected this week, but at the time of publication the county’s health department had not yet responded to an N&O inquiry into how the new supply would affect appointment scheduling.
New cases, vaccinations in Orange
Orange County saw an increase of 681 new cases in the past 14 days, according to state data. 380 of those new cases were reported in the past week. DHHS reports 82 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in the county — five more than had died as of last week.
In total, the county has had 6,760 reported cases of the virus.
As of Friday, an average 2.5% of tests were returning positive over 14 days. That’s lower than the 3.4% rate the county was experiencing a week ago.
DHHS data shows 17,140 first doses of the vaccine have been administered, an increase of 5,630 since last week. Second doses showed an increase of 1,327 to reach a total of 4,494 administered.
Reopening debate continues over schools
Around the state and in Triangle counties, North Carolina’s approach to education amid the pandemic has continued to cause controversy, with protesters gathering in Raleigh last week to demand they be reopened.
As Wake County continues to deliberate on when to reopen schools, the county school system anonymously surveyed parents and staff last week to garner opinions on how classes amid the pandemic have gone. In-person instruction was initially suspended in mid-March, with limited in-person classes resuming late last year for elementary and middle school students. High school students remain fully remote.
Remote instruction has been particularly hard on special-needs students, The N&O reported Friday.
And at UNC-Chapel Hill, university officials are working to confirm footage that appears to depict students defying COVID-19 safety guidelines. The videos come from an Instagram account called “whereyallgoin_unc,” and students found to be violating rules could face disciplinary action, The N&O reported Thursday.