NC reports largest daily COVID-19 case increase in months
North Carolina reported 9,377 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday from the past 24 hours, the highest daily increase since early September during the surge of the highly contagious delta variant.
Now North Carolina faces a new variant, omicron. Public health officials believe that omicron is even more infectious than delta though it induces less severe symptoms.
Over the past week, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has reported an average of more than 5,900 new cases per day. At the beginning of December that rate was at less than 1,900.
“The number of cases have gone up dramatically,” said Dr. David Wohl, infectious disease specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill. “But proportionately, we’re not seeing hospitalizations or deaths go up to the same extent, and that’s good. That’s really, really key.”
Hospitalizations due to the virus are at 2,122, the first time they have topped 2,000 since mid-October, when the state was coming down from the surge of the delta variant, but they are still much lower than the nearly 4,000 reported at the height of that surge.
So far in December, 381 people in North Carolina have died due to COVID-19. Throughout November, 515 died. Omicron was not detected until late November.
In August, when cases were increasing due to the delta variant, more than 1,200 North Carolinians died.
“We may be able to coexist with omicron in a way we’ve not been able to fully with delta or previous variants,” Wohl said.
Omicron and delta
The number of new cases due to omicron in North Carolina is uncertain.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 58% of new cases are omicron, as of Christmas day. In southeast states, which North Carolina is included among, over 78% of new cases are estimated to be the new variant.
Among tests conducted in the UNC Health system during the week of Dec. 13, more than 20% were cases of omicron.
“Our best guess right now is maybe half of new infections are omicron. That means half are still delta, which has dealt a deadly blow to our country over the last few months,” Wohl said.
Among tests administered on Sunday, over 20% were positive, the highest of the pandemic, The News & Observer reported Tuesday.
Among tests administered Monday, the latest available data, 17.3% returned positive. Over the last week of available data, an average of 13.8% of tests have returned positive per day. State health officials have said they want that rate at 5% or lower.
Vaccination still protects against omicron
Early data suggests that omicron is more effective at infecting vaccinated people, but the vaccines still protect from severe disease in most cases.
“This is a variant that has learned to infect people who’ve been infected before [and] people who have been vaccinated,” Wohl said.
But it doesn’t cause severe illness at the same rate as previous variants.
“The great news for this variant is that it does not cause nearly the degree of severe illness that delta did, especially in people who are vaccinated and boosted,” Wohl said.
During the week of Dec. 13, those unvaccinated made up nearly 84% of statewide hospitalizations, among those reporting vaccination status. For patients who required intensive care, more than 87% were unvaccinated.
“If you are unvaccinated or under vaccinated, you face an existential threat from omicron and delta. And that continues, through this winter to be the case where people who are hospitalized and people who are in the ICU and people who are dying are overwhelmingly people who are not vaccinated,” Wohl said.
As of Wednesday, 59% of North Carolina’s population have received either two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Among those eligible, ages 5 and up, 62% have received their shots.
In late November, the CDC recommended that all adults receive an additional booster shot of the vaccine. In North Carolina, over 2.4 million have gotten their booster.
For those who initially received one of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer or Moderna, it is recommended that a booster is given six months after the second dose. For the single-shot J&J vaccine, the recommendation is two months later.
Many health officials recommend that those who initially received J&J switch to an mRNA vaccine for the booster as they are more effective against omicron, early data suggests.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 12:23 PM.