Some adhere to rules, others challenge them as new cases of coronavirus in NC rise again
North Carolina entered its second weekend of Phase Two recovery Friday, with some residents still limiting their contact with people outside their households and others openly challenging the rules that remain in place.
Under Phase Two, laid out by Gov. Roy Cooper with guidance from the White House and state health and safety officials, residents are free to work, shop and travel but still are kept from businesses not yet approved for reopening. Residents also are not supposed to attend gatherings of more than 25 people.
Ace Speedway in the Alamance County community of Altamahaw, has said it will hold another event Saturday night in defiance of Cooper’s ban on large gatherings. The speedway held a season-opening race last Saturday, drawing several thousand people, most of whom did not wear masks or distance themselves from others.
Cooper said this week it would be up to Alamance County officials to ensure the speedway adheres to state orders. Allowing large crowds to attend races is “reckless,” the governor said.
A Stokes County race track, the 311 Motor Speedway, also will hold races Saturday night with fans in attendance, according to owner Mike Fulp.
“I know everyone of ‘em — just about every single one of ‘em,” Fulp said of his regular crowd. “We’d be lucky right now to get 500 with everything going on. People haven’t worked, people don’t have a job, and people have been laid off. This place right here is for mechanics and DOT workers and people like that, blue-collar people.”
The half-mile, red-clay dirt track on the Stokes-Rockingham county line has a capacity of about 2,500 people, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Elsewhere in the state, Morehead City officials announced that the first two performances in their annual outdoor summer concert series would be canceled, beginning with the one originally scheduled for Saturday. In response to the city’s Facebook announcement, some residents supported the decision and others said it was “ridiculous.”
Additional testing finds more spread of illness
For weeks, Cooper and state officials have said reopening the state would happen as markers of the spread and severity of COVID-19 indicate the illness is under some control.
Hospitalizations for coronavirus illness showed a slight decline in North Carolina on Friday, but the number of positive case reports has spiked with increased testing, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Health and Human Services.
There were 1,076 new cases of COVID-19 since Thursday, the DHHS reported. That came after 15,704 completed tests for the virus, a one-day high, as more testing sites open across the state.
The state reported that there have been 859 deaths from coronavirus, with the DHHS data showing 84% of the fatalities have been for people ages 65 or older.
After establishing one-day highs in hospitalizations in the state in back-to-back days, the number decreased to 680 on Friday, with 90% of the hospitals reporting to DHHS.
The DHHS had reported 708 hospitalizations on Thursday, after a 703 total on Wednesday. Both were single-day highs for the state during the coronavirus pandemic. By comparison, 442 people were hospitalized on May 10.
As the state continued to abide by the Phase Two restrictions set by Gov. Roy Cooper, there were 26,488 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Friday.
In total, 391,231 tests for the coronavirus have been completed in North Carolina, which has a population of about 10.5 million. The positive rate, as computed by DHHS, has been 8%.
Despite the increase in hospitalizations this week, the state’s healthcare system showed 76% of ventilators are available, with 23% of in-patient hospital beds and 16% of intensive care beds also available.
The DHHS each week updates the number of people deemed to have recovered from COVID-19. The latest estimate, released Monday, showed 14,954 recoveries.
People are presumed to have recovered 14 days after their infection was first diagnosed if they have not been hospitalized. If they have been hospitalized, they are presumed to have recovered after 28 days.
The News & Observer keeps a separate daily track of tracks coronavirus cases and deaths, and its numbers have been greater than state reports. The state reports data at 11 a.m., while the N&O keeps track of new cases announced by counties throughout the day. As of Friday evening, that total is 26,879 cases and 919 deaths.
Cooper’s latest executive order went into effect a week ago in a “modest” Phase Two reopening, ending his stay-at-home order and relaxing many of the social restrictions that had been in place since late March.
Restaurants were allowed to serve dine-in customers but at a limited capacity and while maintaining social distancing guidelines.
Testing for all inmates at Caswell County prison
North Carolina prison officials said Friday they will test all inmates at Caswell Correctional Center for COVID-19, with results expected next week.
The announcement comes a little more than a week after a network of journalists across the state revealed that a nurse who worked at the prison died of the virus. Officials also announced the extension of a voluntary testing program for prison staff earlier this week.
In a release Friday afternoon, a prison spokesperson said the state would test all 420 inmates at Caswell, the network, which includes The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer, reported.
The release said a total of 19 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 at the prison. Data released by the state showed 11 offenders had tested positive as of Thursday. But inconsistencies between reports of inmates testing positive from the Caswell County Health Department and the Department of Public Safety show that the state’s public numbers are not up to date, the network reported.
The prison has been criticized for only testing inmates as they showed symptoms, rather than testing all inmates to identify asymptomatic people to prevent the spread of illness.
A nurse at the prison died of COVID-19 on May 7, the network has reported. State prison officials did not announce the woman’s death publicly and, initially, refused to confirm a staff member had died until pressed by a reporter last week.
Nursing homes lobbied against pandemic plans
Nursing homes, like prisons, are considered congregate living facilities in coronavirus record-keeping, and have been hot spots for infection and death during the pandemic in North Carolina and around the country.
Reporting by The News & Observer and other news organizations found that the the nursing home industry has fought regulations designed to stop diseases like COVID-19 from devastating elderly residents of their facilities.
Rules enacted in 2016 mandated planning for all kinds of hazards, citing Ebola as an example. In 2019, the Trump administration clarified that nursing homes needed to include a specific plan for outbreaks of unfamiliar and contagious diseases — such as the coronavirus.
The plans must address how facilities will respond in an emergency, specifying how nursing homes will decide whether to shelter in place or evacuate, and how they will provide residents with food, water, medicine and power. Nursing homes have to train their staff on these plans and practice them at least twice a year, if possible by participating in a drill with local agencies.
Some nursing homes were slow to comply, according to an analysis of inspection data, watchdog reports and interviews with ombudsmen and advocates.
Across the country, more than one in four nursing homes have registered an outbreak, according to media reports. More than 16,000 nursing home residents and workers have died, accounting for 17% of COVID-19 deaths nationwide, according to an AARP tally on May 18. That figure is likely an understatement of the true scope of the harm.
In North Carolina, the DHHS says, nursing homes have accounted for 3,181 cases of COVID-19 and 456 deaths from the illness as of Friday.
Tax break proposed for private-school parents
The General Assembly has been working this week on various responses to the pandemic.
Legislation filed this week would give tax credits of up to $2,500 per student for North Carolina families who send their children to private schools and up to $500 per child if they homeschool. Taxpayers would have to meet eligibility requirements such as having received a federal CARES Act stimulus check and seen a drop of at least 10% in their adjusted gross income.
“It will help save the state money and provide continuity for families,” state Sen. Rob Bryan, a Mecklenburg County Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor, said in an interview. Senate Bill 857 immediately drew heated reaction from different groups.
Michael D. Priddy, acting president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, said lawmakers should be focusing on how to support the state’s 1.5 million public school students.
Colleges are making plans for fall
Colleges and universities across North Carolina are figuring out what the fall semester will look like for students and instructors. The UNC System has announced that schools may have different start dates but most classes will be completed by Thanksgiving and some final exams will be taken online. Among private universities, Duke has said it will announce plans by the end of June.
Community colleges in the state also are expected to resume in-person classes in the fall with social-distancing measures, but most have not announced specific plans.
Gym owners push back against governor’s rules
Some gym operators, barred from opening until later, are defying the governor’s orders and taking legal action to try to defeat them.
Kosta Velissariou, owner of Bull & Bear Gym in Fuquay-Varina, opened his gym on May 23 and continues to operate, saying he has to support his family, The News & Observer reported.
Gyms were not allowed to reopen under Phase Two, which is expected to remain in place until at least June 26. Yoga studios, museums, amusement parks, bars and night clubs also were ordered to stay closed in Phase Two because, health officials say, the risk of spreading illness is greater in those types of businesses compared to ones where patrons can be kept apart.
A group of gym operators across the state has raised more than $20,000 to retain attorney Chuck Kitchen and sued Cooper on Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court for not allowing them to reopen.
The group argues that by ordering their facilities closed, Cooper is depriving them of their right to earn a living and enjoy the fruits of their labor. The suit asks for a temporary restraining order preventing Cooper from enforcing his executive order.
Staff writers Jonathan Alexander, Carli Brosseau, Keung Hui, Emily Leiker, Brian Murphy, Kate Murphy and Steve Wiseman contributed to this report, along with New Mexico in Depth and Pro Publica.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 11:38 AM.
