Coronavirus cases jump in Mecklenburg and NC ahead of statewide stay-at-home order
Cases of COVID-19 continued to jump Saturday in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina, where the number of statewide cases shot to more than 1,000.
Mecklenburg’s diagnosed cases neared 300 on Saturday — a 50% jump from just Thursday and the most in the state.
South Carolina health officials reported two more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 15. North Carolina has had five deaths, including a person in Rowan County, near Charlotte.. Rowan health officials said late Friday that the patient was considered high risk “due to age and underlying medical conditions.”
Another death was announced Friday in Johnston County, following deaths in Cabarrus and Harnett counties.
The rise in N.C. cases to 1,016 came on the weekend before Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order takes effect and two days after a similar order began in Mecklenburg.
“I think for the most part people are either abiding by the order or there are loopholes that allow them to skirt the order,” county commissioners Chair George Dunlap said Saturday. “You can tell the difference when you’re on the street during the day.”
Cooper’s order starts at 5 p.m. Monday and lasts for 30 days. It requires people to stay home except for work considered essential, bans groups of more than 10 and calls for people outdoors to stay 6 feet apart.
Mecklenburg’s order took effect Thursday.
On Saturday, Mecklenburg officials clarified that the county order supersedes the state order in some areas. For example, some real estate transactions must be done virtually in the county, a limit not included in the governor’s order. And car sales in the county are also required to be virtual.
Hospital officials sought the orders to prevent healthcare facilities from being overrun.
“As healthcare providers that are entrusted with caring for this community 24/7, first and foremost, we are requesting that the community adheres to this directive because each and every one of us can play a big role in reducing the spread of this virus, which will go a long way toward helping hospitals preserve needed resources,” Atrium Health President and CEO Eugene Woods said in a statement Saturday.
Zero to 1,000 in 25 days
Across the country, the number of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, climbed to more than 113,000 Saturday.
Mecklenburg’s cases, which stood at 204 on Thursday, jumped to 299 Saturday, according to the county. That contributed to the rise in statewide numbers from zero to more than 1,000 in 25 days.
The jump has happened in suburban counties as well as in metropolitan areas. Union County had 30 cases Saturday, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Cabarrus County had 23, Iredell County 18, Gaston County 16, Catawba County 12 and Lincoln County 1. York County, SC, had 31 cases and Lancaster County 9, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
According to WBTV, the Observer’s news partner, a contract worker at UNC Charlotte’s uptown campus was one of the latest to test positive for the novel coronavirus. And WSOC reported that a Central Piedmont Community College employee also had tested positive.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Donnie Hoover announced that he had tested positive. His wife, Josephine Hoover, has been hospitalized for more than two weeks with symptoms of the virus.
“As the cases begin to rise and you begin identify with people you know personally who have caught the virus, it makes it more real,” said Dunlap, a friend of Hoover’s.
‘In this together’
In the meantime, people have continued reaching out to help.
On Saturday the Charlotte Hornets and their concessions partner, Levy, donated extra food from the Spectrum Center to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina. Elsewhere, neighbors helped neighbors by running errands or trying to lift spirits.
At the end of a public trail in Chantilly, someone had used sidewalk chalk to leave a message on five wooden posts, one word at a time. “The sun will keep shining,” it said.
“People are starting to be more focused not just on themselves but everyone,” county Commissioner Pat Cotham said Saturday. “And things we’ve always been able to count on we can’t count on. It’s a scary time. (But) we’re all in this together, even if we’re 6 feet apart.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2020 at 5:18 PM.
