ROCKINGHAM — For the sixth consecutive reporting day, the Richmond County Health Department has announced more than 15 new cases of COVID-19.
In Wednesday’s update, health officials reported 16 new cases, bringing the overall total to 1,691 since the first case was reported in April.
The number of active cases is 176, after dropping below 100 earlier this month. Of the active cases, 169 are under home isolation and the remaining seven are hospitalized.
There have been 242 cases reported this month, with the Health Department reporting only one day with fewer than 10 cases.
Wednesday marked the fourth of the past five days of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reporting more than 3,000 new cases statewide — the fifth time since Nov. 11 — with 3,367. a new record-high of 3,885 on Nov. 14.
The daily testing rate seems to be holding about the same since Oct. 21 at around 30,000 per day.
Statewide COVID-related hospitalizations have also recently risen to more than 1,500.
According to FirstHealth, 32 of its 378 patients (8.53%) have COVID-19.
Richmond County Schools on Wednesday reported that one staff member from Fairview Heights and one virtual student at Richmond Senior High School tested positive.
That makes 19 school related cases this week: 13 virtual students, four traditional students and one staff member.
On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper and Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen unveiled the new COVID-19 County Alert System, showing Richmond as one of 43 counties with “substantial” community spread.
Of the 53,268 tests completed (including some retests) by FirstHealth, 5,505 have been positive, 46,868 have been negative and 312 results are still pending.
On the county level, there have been 16,189 negative results. The Health Department says 1,477 of those who tested positive have recovered and 38 have died from COVID-related complications, including 15 in October and four in November.
North Carolina has had 320,862 total cases (276,132 presumed to have recovered as of Monday) from 4,715,093 completed tests and 4,898 COVID-related deaths.
Free testing COVID testing began last week in the parking lot behind the Human Services Complex on Caroline Street. Testing will run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through the rest of the month, except for Thanksgiving Day and the day after, according to a press release.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of local cases per age group are as follows (includes recoveries):
- 0-18 – 255 (+6)
- 19-30 – 289 (+3)
- 31-40 – 220 (+2)
- 41-50 – 298 (+3)
- 50-64 – 347 (+2)
- 65-older – 282 (no change)
(The + indicates the increase from the previous day.)
The total number of cases per ZIP code are as follows:
- Rockingham – 891 (104 active)
- Hamlet – 480 (54 active)
- Ellerbe – 149 (13 active)
- Hoffman – 149 (3 active)
- Mount Gilead – 10 (0 active)
- Marston – 11 (2 active)
- Jackson Springs – 1 (0 active)
More than 60 of the state’s 100 counties have now experienced more than 1,000 total cases.
Only four counties have had fewer than 200 cases, and they are all in the northeast corner of the state: Tyrrell (136), Camden (163), Gates (188) and Hyde (180). All four are among the state’s 10 least-populated counties.
The total numbers (including recoveries) for surrounding counties are as follows:
- Mecklenburg -39,166 (other counties to top 10,000 are Wake, Guilford, Forsyth and Durham. All are among the state’s six most-populated counties.)
- Union – 6,995
- Stanly – 2,734
- Montgomery – 1,304
- Anson – 837
- Moore – 2,612 (228 active, 59 deaths)
- Hoke – 1,804
- Scotland – 1,791
- Robeson – 6,804
All numbers are from DHHS except Moore, which are from the local health department, as there has been a discrepancy with the state.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is reporting 1,659 total cases and 52 deaths in Chesterfield County and 1,291 cases and 16 deaths in Marlboro County.
