ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County experienced an increase of nearly 30 positive COVID-19 cases over Labor Day Weekend.
The Richmond County Health Department announced 28 new cases on Tuesday, since the office didn’t report on Monday, which was a government holiday, or Sunday.
This brings the total number of cases since early April up to 767.
The number of active cases is 162 — the highest of any one day since the pandemic began. The previous record was set on July 27 with 138.
According to the Health Department’s update, 154 patients are under home isolation. The Department also reports eight are hospitalized, more than doubling the number of hospitalizations from Saturday.
The youngest age group (birth-18) has seen an increase of nine since Saturday, according to Health Department records.
On Tuesday, Richmond County Schools — which is keeping a running tally of student and staff cases — reported one case of a traditional student at East Rockingham Elementary. The district also reported cases of two virtual students at Richmond Senior High School and one case at Fairview Heights. There was also one case reported at Central Services.
Of the county’s total cases, 593 have recovered and 7,820 residents have tested negative for the coronavirus.
Last week, the county reported 58 new cases and the 12th COVID-related death.
The majority of Richmond County’s cases (59%) have been women, according to the Health Department. African Americans and caucasians make up for 44% and 43%, respectively.
While the new numbers in Richmond County are higher than usual, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has reported a downward trend since Sept. 4, from 2,045 to 716, the fewest in almost a month.
However, DDHS issued a statement saying it “has experienced continued technical and submission issues with hospital systems’ data, which have been exacerbated by the holiday weekend, resulting in incomplete hospitalization data.
“NCDHHS is working with all parties to resolve these issues. Because the COVID-19 NC Dashboard displays only data that it (has) received, it is likely that actual hospital numbers are higher than what is on the current dashboard.”
The issue was first reported on Sept. 4.
The state estimated on Monday that 156,652 of the 178,635 patients have recovered.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of local cases per age group are as follows:
- 0-18 – 107
- 19-30 – 118
- 31-40 – 106
- 41-50 – 141
- 50-64 – 166
- 65-older – 129
The number of cases per ZIP code are as follows:
- Rockingham – 441 (343 recovered)
- Hamlet – 212 (153 recovered)
- Ellerbe – 74 (62 recovered)
- Hoffman – 28 (25 recovered)
- Mount Gilead – 10 (8 recovered)
- Marston – 2 (2 recovered)
DHHS reports that more than 40 of the state’s 100 counties that have now experienced more than 1,000 total cases: Alamance, Brunswick, Burke, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Craven, Franklin, Chatham, Cleveland, Columbus, Cumberland, Davidson, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Gaston, Granville, Guilford, Harnett, Henderson, Iredell, Johnston, Lee, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Onlsow, Orange, Pitt, Randolph, Rowan, Robeson, Rutherford, Sampson, Stanly, Surry, Union, Wake, Wayne, Wilkes and Wilson.
Halifax, Hoke, Lenoir, Montgomery, Rockingham, and Vance counties have had more than 900 cases.
Madison County has the state’s fewest number of cases with 74. The only other counties with fewer than 100 cases are all in the mountains: Graham (82), Mitchell (94) and Clay (96).
The total numbers (including recoveries) for surrounding counties are as follows:
- Mecklenburg -26363 (the only other county to top 10,000 is Wake with 15,887)
- Union – 4,193
- Stanly – 1,628
- Montgomery – 950
- Anson – 483
- Moore – 1,400 (111 active)
- Hoke – 920
- Scotland – 747
- Robeson – 3,862
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 1,067 cases in Chesterfield County and 804 in Marlboro County.
NOTE: This story was corrected with the number of hospitalizations. 6:22 p.m. 10-8-20
