NC Nears 47,000 COVID-19 Cases As Hospitalizations Reach New High

CHARLOTTE, NC — North Carolina reported more than 1,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus Wednesday, increasing the state's total to nearly 47,000 cases, according to the latest data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

North Carolina's coronavirus death toll reached 1,168 Wednesday following 14 new deaths since Tuesday. The news comes as the state saw another record-breaking day for hospitalizations, with 846 people hospitalized for COVID-19 illness, up from 829 reported Tuesday.

North Carolina confirmed 46,855 cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, including 1,002 new cases confirmed since Tuesday. The most recent batch of data is a result of state labs processing more than 16,000 tests, increasing the total number of tests processed in the state to more than 667,000.

As of Wednesday, 8 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 17 states identified as having a higher-than-recommended positivity rate and in need of increased COVID-19 testing capacity, Johns Hopkins University said. As of June 17, it had the eighth highest positivity rate in the country, behind Arkansas and slightly better than Georgia. The U.S. positivity rate Wednesday was 13.71 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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As testing and contact tracing efforts have increased in North Carolina, so also have staffing and financial pressures on local health departments. North Carolina has received $35 million in federal funding to help offset those pressures, and it will soon begin distributing a base allocation of $90,000 to each county, with additional funding based on population size and COVID-19 caseload, the state health department announced Tuesday.

“Our local health departments are critical partners with the state as we fight this virus, and this funding will help them continue and expand their important work,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement.

While Wednesday's peak in hospital bed use put a squeeze on medical resources, beds remained available throughout the state, according to state health officials. A survey of 86 percent of the state's hospitals showed that 79 percent of inpatient hospital beds and 77 percent of intensive care unit hospital beds were occupied Wednesday, officials said.

COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate living facilities — such as nursing homes, residential care facilities and correctional facilities — rose to 6,987 confirmed cases Wednesday. The case count represents about 15 percent of the total cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the state.

As of Wednesday, 108 of the state's 409 nursing home facilities had a COVID-19 outbreak. State health officials also reported outbreaks at 61 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 state health data.

As the number of confirmed cases and hospitalizations grow, state public health officials are now considering whether to make cloth face coverings mandatory, Cooper said earlier in the week. Under the state's current "Phase 2" restrictions, which is set to expire June 26, masks must be worn by personal care workers, such as in hair and nail salons. Cooper said a decision about how — or if — the state progresses into Phase 3 will be announced next week.

"The health experts are looking carefully at the numbers and the science, and we will let the people of North Carolina know at the first of next week whether we will go into the next phase, and if so, what that phase will look like," Cooper said during a news conference Monday.

Masks could possibly be a component of the decision, he said.

"It's absolutely in discussion right now regarding whether we make cloth face coverings mandatory and in what way we do it," Cooper said. "We want people to voluntarily to do this, but we are looking at additional rules to potentially make these mandatory."

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