COVID-19 Cases Spike In NC, All Prison Inmates To Be Tested

NORTH CAROLINA — All prison inmates and prison staff in North Carolina will be tested for novel coronavirus, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday.

As of Thursday, 1,573 cases of coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, were confirmed in North Carolina correctional facilities, and 25 inmates have died from the virus, NCDHHS said.

To date, only about 10 percent of North Carolina's prison population has been tested, Commissioner of Prisons Todd Ishee said. "Based on updated guidance from DHHS, we have begun testing all 31,200 offenders throughout our prison system," he said. The initiative is expected to take 60 days to complete and cost $3.3 million.

The news comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in North Carolina spiked by 1,333 cases Thursday, increasing the state's total number of known cases to more than 48,000, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

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The state's coronavirus death toll also increased, to 1,175 following seven new deaths reported in the state overnight. Hospitalizations also rose by 11 patients to 859, setting a new record for North Carolina.

While Thursday's peak in hospital bed use put a squeeze on medical resources, beds remained available throughout the state, according to NCDHHS. A survey of 88 percent of the state's hospitals show that 80 percent of inpatient hospital beds and 78 percent of intensive care unit hospital beds were occupied Thursday, NCDHHS said.

As of Thursday, 9 percent of all tests in North Carolina were positive. By comparison, the World Health Organization recommends that governments have a percent positive rate of 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days before reopening.

North Carolina was one of 18 states identified as having a higher than recommended positivity rate and in need of increased COVID-19 testing capacity, Johns Hopkins University said Thursday. As of June 18, it had the seventh highest positivity rate in the country, behind Texas and slightly better than Georgia. The U.S.' positivity rate Wednesday was 13.76 percent, placing the country behind only Brazil, Mexico and Sweden for its percent of positive cases.

"If a positivity rate is too high, that may indicate that the state is only testing the sickest patients who seek medical attention, and is not casting a wide enough net to know how much of the virus is spreading within its communities," Johns Hopkins University said. "A low rate of positivity in testing data can be seen as a sign that a state has sufficient testing capacity for the size of their outbreak and is testing enough of its population to make informed decisions about reopening."

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COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate living facilities, such as nursing homes, residential care facilities and correctional facilities rose to 7,043 confirmed cases Thursday. The case count represents about 15 percent of the total cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the state.

As of Thursday, 107 of the state's 409 nursing home facilities had a COVID-19 outbreak. State health officials also reported outbreaks at 63 residential care facilities and 22 correctional facilities. About 62 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 in North Carolina have occurred in such congregate living facilities, according to NCDHHS data.