Mecklenburg County Aims To Ramp Up Testing To 13K A Week

CHARLOTTE, NC — Mecklenburg County health officials are ramping up testing for novel coronavirus and aim to test an additional 5 percent of county residents within the next 30 days, according to the county's public health director Gibbie Harris.

"We know that we have more COVID-19 in our community than we've seen" Harris said.

As of noon Thursday, 1,932 cases of novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, had been confirmed in Mecklenburg County, and 59 county residents had lost their lives to COVID-19 related illness. Those tallies are the result of more than 36,000 COVID-19 tests conducted in the county, which represents about 3.2 percent of the county's population, Harris said.

In Mecklenburg County, the percent of positive cases compared to the total number of tests and the number of hospitalizations are two trends that are stabilizing, Harris said.

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Under the new testing goal announced Thursday, the county will now need to conduct 13,000 new tests a week, or about 1,850 tests a day — a target the county has been meeting for the past two days, Harris said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

"With this new testing strategy, we expect to see much larger case counts," she said.

The prospect of higher case counts come as the statewide stay-at-home order is set to ease Friday, May 8 at 5 p.m., when the distinctions of "essential" and "non-essential" businesses fall away and residents have more freedom to leave their homes.

"I would not be a public health official if I didn't have concerns," Harris said, adding that impact the new "Phase One" of easing of restrictions would be known in the next couple of weeks.

"This should not be seen as an opportunity to go back to business as usual, to hang out at the mall," or to stroll, Harris said. "I want people to understand that the stay-at-home order is still in place," Harris said.

North Carolina health officials reported 13,397 positive cases of COVID-19 throughout the state Thursday morning, an increase of 639 cases since Wednesday.

The death toll for the state increased by 30 new deaths since Wednesday, putting the statewide total at 507, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus also rose slightly overnight, to 525, up by nine patients reported Wednesday, health officials said.

Mecklenburg County continues to be the hardest hit in North Carolina, followed by Wake County, which has 961 confirmed cases and 21 deaths.

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