Coronavirus cases rise by more than 2,200 cases in NC as hospitalizations drop
North Carolina added more than 2,200 cases to its running coronavirus total Wednesday, though the number of hospitalized patients fell slightly statewide.
The state Department of Health and Human Services reported 266,136 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up 2,253 from Tuesday’s total. Wednesday marked the second-straight day that new cases topped 2,000, continuing October’s trend of higher daily numbers.
The updated figures come a day after DHHS reported the state’s second-highest totals for hospitalized patients since the pandemic began: 1,214 people.
But DHHS showed that figure dropping slightly to 1,193 statewide with 500 intensive-care beds still available. DHHS reported 294 patients admitted to North Carolina hospitals in the last 24 hours.
“They have continued to creep up,” said N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper Wednesday at a news conference. “We have plenty of hospital capacity. Plenty of ICU capacity, plenty of ventilator capacity. But you are concerned when you see a creep up.”
Positive test percentage higher than state wants
Testing for COVID-19 continued to ramp up Wednesday with the state passing 3.9 million tests. Of those, DHHS reports a 6.9% positive rate, still higher than the 5% rate state health officials hope to reach.
“We’ve been more successful in testing, so we know that we’re gonna have more positive cases,” Cooper said. “But we also look at the percent positive, and we know we want that to be around 5(%) or lower, but we’ve seen it creep up to 6 and even 7 during this period of time. That’s not into double digits or 20s, like you’re seeing in some states. But that number is concerning.”
The virus still most often strikes people aged 25 to 49, DHHS reports, showing 40% of the state’s caseload in that age range.
But the state’s death toll from the pandemic comes mostly from older patients. DHHS shows 58% of fatalities among patients older than 75.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 12:31 PM.