New nursing home COVID-19 outbreak in Meck, state reports 61 new coronavirus cases
State health officials on Monday morning reported 61 new cases of coronavirus in Mecklenburg County. That brings the total since mid-March to 2,652.
Health officials say 64 people with COVID-19 have died locally, with no new deaths reported Sunday or Monday. More than 1,500 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the county have recovered and since been released from isolation, according to the latest figures released on May 13.
About half of the people who have died were connected to nursing homes or long-term care facilities, according to the health department. State Department of Health and Human Services reported nine outbreaks in local nursing homes as of Monday — an increase of one — and six outbreaks in long-term residential care facilities.
There are 77 total active outbreaks reported in nursing homes across North Carolina. The name and location of the most-recent nursing home outbreak in Mecklenburg was not released Monday. State officials have said the department will update its listing of nursing home cases every Tuesday and Friday.
Statewide, DHHS reported 511 new cases Monday, for a total of 19,023, and 2 more deaths, for a total of 661.
Eligibility for coronavirus testing in the county is changing and the county is working on scaling up testing, with the goal of testing 55,500 people over a 30-day period. To hit the goal, the county needs to test nearly 13,000 county residents a week, Health Director Gibbie Harris has said. In the first week of working toward the goal, the county fell short but administered close to 10,000 tests over a 7 day period in early May.
Mecklenburg COVID-19 update
As of May 13 — the last date demographic data was publicly available — county coronavirus data show:
▪ An average of about 54 people with lab-confirmed coronavirus infections were hospitalized at acute-care facilities in the past week. Those numbers reflect a decrease over the past two weeks, according to Mecklenburg health officials.
▪ An average of 7% of people who were tested were positive, showing a “slight” decrease over the last 14 days, health officials say. The figure includes only COVID-19 tests conducted by Atrium Health and Novant Health.
▪ About 3 in 4 people diagnosed with COVID-19 locally were adults ages 20 to 59 years old.
▪ About 1 in 7 people diagnosed were hospitalized due to their illness. People age 60 or older were more likely to need hospital care compared to younger people with coronavirus.
“Many individuals infected by COVID-19 have not been tested because they are asymptomatic or do not meet current CDC recommendations for testing. As such, these results are very fluid and only represent a fraction of the true burden of COVID-19 in our community,” Mecklenburg health officials said late last week in a news statement.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy don't we know how many tests have been done in Mecklenburg County?
Mecklenburg County Health Department collects data from local hospitals on the number of tests administered. County officials have said they do not know how many tests have been done outside of hospitals.
Non-hospital test centers and private labs report the number of tests and outcomes directly to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The state health department reports on its website a daily count of the number of tests performed across North Carolina. A county-by-county breakdown of the number of tests has not been provided publicly.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 11:18 AM.
