ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County has broken the 1,200-case mark after 40 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past three days.
On Wednesday, the Health Department announced 16 residents had tested positive for the coronavirus. There were 13 new cases on Tuesday and 11 new cases on Monday.
This brings the county’s overall total to 1,213. Of those, 1,057 have recovered.
As of Wednesday’s report, 10 patients were hospitalized and 122 were under home isolation.
The total number of tests that have returned negative is 11,301.
So far, there have been 166 cases for the month of October. Only one reporting day has seen fewer than 10 new cases.
September saw the most cases in the county (358) for one month: 49 the first week; 106; the second week; 91 the third week; 79 the fourth week; and 33 the final few days last week.
This week, Richmond County Schools has reported eight cases:
- Monday – one virtual student at East Rockingham Elementary; one virtual and one traditional student at Fairview Heights Elementary. (Fairview Heights is currently closed until Oct. 20.)
- Tuesday – two staff members at Richmond Senior High School
- Wednesday – one staff member each at Rockingham Middle and the Ninth Grade Academy; and one virtual student at Richmond Senior.
To date, the school district has had 21 staff members from the schools and four from the central office, 33 virtual students and eight* traditional students have tested positive for COVID-19.
(*The graph’s total only shows five, but adding all the traditional students from the individual schools comes out to eight, including six at Fairview Heights.)
Statewide, there were 1,926 cases reported on Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Oct. 8 saw the third-highest one-day total of the pandemic. The highest was July 18 with 2,486.
Although the state hospitalization rate remained steady between 800 and 950 patients, North Carolina has seen a spike this month, reaching a high of 1,152 on Wednesday. Records show that 425 patients suspected of having COVID-19 were admitted within the past 24 hours.
The state has also reported 3,856 COVID-related deaths, including 24 in Richmond County. The most recent local death was reported Oct. 12.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of local cases per age group are as follows:
- 0-18 – 159
- 19-30 – 207
- 31-40 – 152
- 41-50 – 220
- 50-64 – 262
- 65-older – 213
Statewide, the largest age group is 25-49.
The number of cases per ZIP code are as follows:
- Rockingham – 644 (64 active)
- Hamlet – 347(50 active)
- Ellerbe – 120 (7 active)
- Hoffman – 83 (9 active)
- Mount Gilead – 10 (0 active)
- Marston – 9 (2 active)
DHHS reports that more than half of the state’s 100 counties that have now experienced more than 1,000 total cases: Alamance, Beaufort, Brunswick, Burke, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Craven, Franklin, Chatham, Cleveland, Columbus, Cumberland, Davidson, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Gaston, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Henderson, Hoke, Iredell, Johnston, Lee, Lenoir, Lincoln, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Onlsow, Orange, Pender, Pitt, Randolph, Richmond, Rowan, Robeson, Rockingham, Rutherford, Sampson, Scotland, Stanly, Surry, Union, Vance, Wake, Watauga, Wayne, Wilkes and Wilson.
Bladen and Carteret counties have had more than 900 cases.
Tyrell County now has the least number of total cases at 118, followed by Camden (129) and Madison (131).
Compared to other counties with a population between 43,000 and 48,000, Richmond tops the list. Mc Dowell and Beaufort counties follow at 1,168 and 1,149, respectively.
Vance County has had 1,119 cases. The other three counties in the same population bracket have lesser totals: Vance(1,119); Jackson (777); and Stokes (578).
The total numbers (including recoveries) for surrounding counties are as follows:
- Mecklenburg -30,318 (the only other counties to top 10,000 are Wake with 19,334 and Guilford with 10,088)
- Union – 5,441
- Stanly – 2,298
- Montgomery – 1,101
- Anson – 678
- Moore – 2,045 (280 active, 36 deaths)
- Hoke – 1,385
- Scotland – 1,464
- Robeson – 5,415
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 1,383 total cases and 39 deaths in Chesterfield County and 1,026 cases and 12 deaths in Marlboro County.
(Note: This story has been edited to reflect the correct number of negative test results.)
