NC reports over 7,000 new COVID cases and over 100 deaths for second day in a row
North Carolina reported 125 COVID-19 deaths Friday, the second day in a row the state has reported over 100 deaths.
It’s the seventh time the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has reported over 100 deaths in a day.
Since the new year, the state has reported 1,644 deaths due to the virus.
That’s over 19% of the 8,464 COVID19-related deaths reported in the state since the pandemic began.
DHHS reported 7,436 new cases on Friday. It’s second day in a row that the state has reported over 7,000 new cases after Monday and Tuesday saw case increases under 5,000.
Over the last week, DHHS has reported an average of 6,528 new cases per day. A week ago that average was over 8,100.
The average is still up from a month ago when it was 6,043 new cases per day.
Statewide hospitalizations continue to decrease as DHHS reported 3,512 on Friday. On Jan. 14, the state reported a pandemic high of 3,990 hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations have been over 3,000 for a month.
Among the tests reported on Wednesday, the latest day with data available, 10.1% returned positive. The rate has been steadily decreasing since the pandemic high of 17.1% reported by DHHS on Jan. 4.
Over the last week prior to Wednesday, an average of 11% of tests per day had returned positive. State health officials have said they want that number at 5% or lower, a threshold the state hasn’t met since Sept. 24.
Case and hospitalization data reported by DHHS is preliminary and subject to change upon further investigation.
ICU and hospital capacity
As of Friday, there were 371 intensive care unit beds and 4,683 inpatient beds available across the state. Statewide, 85% of ICU beds and 78% of inpatient beds are in use.
At the beginning of the month these rates were 83% and 74% respectively.
NC has vaccinated 625,000 people
As of Friday, 625,000 people in North Carolina have been vaccinated, according to Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.
This is up from the 573,130 vaccinations reported by DHHS on Thursday.
State health officials are trying to administer their entire vaccine supply every week, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Our goal is to make sure we are using up all of the vaccine that is given to the state before the next shipment comes so we can demonstrate to the federal government that we are using our vaccine,” Cohen said.
The state receives about 120,000 first doses of vaccine each week, Cohen said.
The state announced on Thursday that the state Department of Transportation will send about $2.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to local transit agencies to pay for trips to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. State officials said that this could help up to 30,000 people gain access to the vaccine.
“Lack of transportation shouldn’t be the reason someone doesn’t receive their shot,” Cohen said.
Based on Thursday’s vaccine numbers, 424,274 first doses and 76,293 second doses have been administered in North Carolina. As part of the federal government’s partnership with CVS and Walgreens, 72,563 total doses have been given out in long-term care facilities.
The COVID-19 vaccines require two doses, administered weeks apart, in order to be most effective.
North Carolina has not yet given a breakdown of first and second doses among the 625,000 total doses reported Friday.
The state is currently only vaccinating health care workers and people aged 65 and older.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 12:20 PM.