ROCKINGHAM — An hour before Gov. Roy Cooper was scheduled to have a press briefing, the Richmond County Health Department announced 43 new COVID-19 cases.
This brings the number of active cases up to 285 — including a record 22 hospitalizations.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reports 2,373 North Carolinans were hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Dec. 7. That number has been steadily on the rise since early November.
During that time, Richmond County’s hospitalizations dropped to four on Nov. 30, but the number has quintupled in the past eight days.
Richmond County is grouped with Moore, Montgomery, Chatham, Alamance, Orange, Hoke, Cumberland and Sampson counties in the Mid Carolina Regional Health Care Coalition.
As of Monday, there were 270 individuals hospitalized in the region — 32 admitted within the past 24 hours — with 92% of hospitals reporting, according to DHHS.
As of this writing, 64 of FirstHealth’s 372 patients (17.2%) have tested positive for the coronavirus (same as reported Monday evening).
DHHS reported 4,670 new cases on Tuesday. New records were set over the weekend, with both Saturday and Sunday topping 6,000.
Both Cooper and Health and Human Service Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen have suggested that they are “looking at what further actions we can take as a state to protect North Carolinians and save lives.”
The state briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Richmond County has had 19,202 negative test results, 2,106 positive cases and 1,779 recoveries since early April.
The Health Department is offering free COVID testing in the lot behind the building until Dec. 31. Testing will run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday — except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
There will also be free testing at the following locations:
- Cole Auditorium parking lot – 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 7-11
- Ellerbe Middle School parking lot – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 14-18
Each site is closed for lunch from noon-12:30 p.m.
Register for testing by visiting www.lhi.care and following the directions at the top or by calling 877-562-4850.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of local cases per age group are as follows (includes recoveries):
- 0-18 – 315 (+6)
- 19-30 – 348 (+4)
- 31-40 – 283 (+14)
- 41-50 – 364 (+4)
- 51-64 – 433 (+17)
- 65-older – 363 (+8)
( + indicates the increase in cases per age group from the previous report.)
The total number of cases per ZIP code are as follows:
- Rockingham – 1125 (155 active)
- Hamlet – 618 (104 active)
- Ellerbe – 180 (20 active)
- Hoffman – 154 (3 active)
- Mount Gilead – 10 (0 active)
- Marston – 18 (3 active)
- Jackson Springs – 1 (0 active)
The total numbers (including recoveries) for surrounding counties are as follows:
- Mecklenburg – 47,986 (other counties to top 10,000 are Wake, Guilford, Forsyth, Durham and Gaston. All are among the state’s 10 most-populated counties.)
- Union – 8,867
- Stanly – 3,279
- Montgomery – 1,521
- Anson – 1,033
- Moore – 3,392 (542 active, 70 deaths)
- Hoke – 2,151
- Scotland – 2,103
- Robeson – 7,877 (more than higher-populated counties New Hanover and Buncombe)
All numbers are from DHHS except Moore, which are from the local health department, as there has been a discrepancy with the state.
Robeson, Hoke and Montgomery counties are among those listed as having critical community spread by DHHS. The report hasn’t been updated since Nov. 23, but it’s likely Richmond and Scotland counties could wind up in the same category.
