ROCKINGHAM —The Richmond County Health Department on Thursday announced the third local COVID-related death this week.
According to a press release, the resident died earlier in the day at a local residence, making the fourth to pass away with the coronavirus outside of a medical setting.
Thirty-nine patients have died while in a hospital and 14 have died in another healthcare facility.
So far, there have been four COVID-related deaths reported by the Health Department this year. The first patient died in a hospital Jan. 6 and the other two, who were reported on Wednesday, died in a healthcare facility.
The county has now had 57 COVID-related deaths since the first was reported in April. October has had the most with 15, followed by 13 in December.
The race and gender breakdown is as follows: 10 African American females, eight African American males, one “other race” female, one Hispanic female, two American Indian males, 19 Caucasian females and 16 Caucasian males.
All patients have been between the ages of 31 and 95: 18 have been 80 or older; 17 have been in their 70s; 16 in their 60s; five in their 50s; and one who was 31.
Judging from previous reports, the most recent death was that of an African American woman 80 or older.
As of Jan. 14, there have been 7,825 COVID-related deaths in the state, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. That makes 80 in the past 24 hours.
Johns Hopkins University reports (as of 12:18 p.m. Jan. 14) there have been 385,503 COVID-related deaths in the U.S. and 1,983,691 globally.
Michigan, which has a population just less than that of North Carolina, has had nearly double the number of deaths with 14,336; and Georgia, which also has a comparable population, has had 11,803, according to JHU.
