North Carolina has now reported more than 11,000 COVID-19 deaths
North Carolina added 109 COVID-19 deaths to the state’s coronavirus toll Wednesday, putting the state at 11,074 deaths since the pandemic began.
Deaths do not all occur on the date they are reported. DHHS updates its numbers as information becomes available. According to the latest data from the state Department of Health and Human Services, the deadliest day of the pandemic was Jan. 15 when 116 people died.
Since the new year, 3,425 North Carolinians have died due to the virus, according to the latest DHHS data.
DHHS reported 3,346 new cases on Wednesday, over 1,800 more than Tuesday’s total, which was lowest daily increase since early November.
Over the last week, the state has reported an average of 2,875 new cases per day, a slight increase from Tuesday’s seven-day average.
But that average has decreased overall over the last several weeks. On Jan. 12, the seven-day average was 8,654 per day, a pandemic high.
DHHS reported 1,530 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, the seventh straight day that the state has seen a decrease in hospitalizations.
It’s also the lowest reported daily total since Nov. 17.
Among COVID-19 tests reported Monday, the latest day with available data, 6% were positive, down from the 6.8% reported on Sunday.
State health officials have said that they want the rate at 5% or lower to control the spread of the virus. The last time that North Carolina met this goal was Sept. 24.
It has been decreasing, though, for several weeks. DHHS reported a pandemic high of 17.1% on Jan. 4.
On Wednesday due to the decrease in new cases and hospitalizations, Gov. Roy Cooper announced easing of restrictions that were initially instituted to slow the spread of the virus.
“Today’s action is a show of confidence and trust, but we must remain cautious,” Cooper said at the press conference. “People are losing their loved ones each day. We must keep up our guard. Many of us are weary, but we cannot let the weariness win.”
“We’re sticking with the science and the data, and that is what has told us to do these restrictions, to ease these restrictions the way that we have,” Cooper said.
Death is a ‘lagging indicator’
The rate of deaths reported by DHHS has increased over the last few weeks at a higher rate relative to earlier in the pandemic.
North Carolina reported its first COVID-19 death on March 26. The state reached 5,000 deaths on Nov. 21, after 240 days.
DHHS death reports reached 10,000 just 80 days later on Feb. 9. On Wednesday, the state reached 11,000 deaths, just over two weeks later.
DHHS secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen told The News & Observer in a phone interview on Wednesday that she expects the rate of reported deaths to decrease as other metrics, such as new cases and hospitalizations continue to go down.
“Death, unfortunately, as an indicator is always going to be a lagging indicator. It’s going to be the last thing to start to get better. It is actually one of the reasons why we don’t include death as one of our four key indicators that we look at to make decisions,” Cohen said.
She said that the current increase in deaths that the state is seeing is due to the peak in cases and hospitalizations from January.
But, she said, that while she expects the rate of deaths to go down, the public needs to keep taking precautions, such as wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distance, to avoid another spike in cases.
“We have a lot of work to do to still make sure we’re protecting each other,” Cohen said.
“We know we’re getting better. We’re heading in the right direction. We’re getting vaccines out. But at the same time, we know that we are not very many weeks away from that peak, and that peak is still showing its impact here in North Carolina and that is showing up certainly in the lagging indicator of death.”
North Carolina is currently projected to reach 13,823 deaths on June 1, 97 days from Wednesday, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. This is if the current trajectory of new cases and vaccinations remain the same.
If 95% of public were to maintain mask wearing, that projection would decrease to 13,235.
In a worst-case scenario where those unvaccinated return to pre-COVID-19 behaviors based on the time of year and variants begin to spread in places where there is not already community transmission, then the projection increases to 14,970 deaths.
“With these new variants that are here that makes this virus even more contagious and potentially even, causing more severe illness,” Cohen said.
Case and hospitalization data reported by DHHS are preliminary and subject to change upon further investigation. Here are additional statistics reported Wednesday, with changes from the previous day:
- Total cases: 849,630 (+3,346)
- Deaths: 11,074 (+109)
- Tests: 10,030,177 (+40,258)
- People hospitalized: 1,530 (-37)
- COVID-19 adult ICU patients: 380 (-6)
- Available ICU beds: 551 (+37)
- Available inpatient beds: 5,523 (+350)
- Patients on ventilators: 977 (+34)
Inpatient and ICU beds are not all used by COVID-19 patients, according to DHHS.
Vaccine statistics reported Wednesday:
- First doses arrived: 1,264,470
- First doses administered: 1,256,422 (99%)
- Second doses arrived: 857,900
- Second doses administered: 730,843 (85%)
Vaccine doses administered in North Carolina through the federal, long-term care program:
- First doses arrived: 150,900
- First doses administered: 118,524 (79%)
- Second doses arrived: 150,900
- Second doses administered: 74,766 (50%)
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 12:35 PM.