5 Charlotte transit workers test positive for COVID-19. Meck has 76 new cases.
Five public transit operators in Charlotte have tested positive for COVID-19 and are among the 2,780 people diagnosed in Mecklenburg County with the new coronavirus since mid-March.
The coronavirus has sickened or killed transit workers in most major systems nationwide, the Washington Post reported this week. At least 10,000 employees of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority have been quarantined during the outbreak, the report said.
CATS, the Charlotte Area Transit system, didn’t describe the health status of those employees, citing federal privacy laws, but told the Charlotte Observer none of the operators diagnosed have died of the virus. Those who recently tested positive include two light rail operators, two paratransit drivers and one bus driver, according to CATS.
CATS doesn’t do mass testing of its employees, spokeswoman Juliann Sheldon said, adding that testing on that scale hasn’t been recommended or required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or local health officials.
“All employees are encouraged to stay home if they feel ill or are experiencing COVID-like symptoms,” Sheldon said. “Should an employee be placed on quarantine by a medical provider and/or tests positive, CATS abides by all protocols as recommended by Mecklenburg County Public Health.”
This month CATS began in-service cleanings of its buses and light rail cars during five-minute layovers at the transit center and Blue Line terminus stations. Those cleanings enhanced disinfection protocols announced in March.
CATS has waived fares during the pandemic and reduced schedules and routes as ridership plummeted in March. The authority has imposed capacity limits and marked social-distance spacing on buses, and urged passengers to wear masks and ride transit only for “life-sustaining” trips.
New coronavirus cases
Mecklenburg County has seen a total of 2,780 coronavirus cases, according to state health data released Wednesday afternoon.
The county added 76 new cases from the previous day, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported.
Mecklenurg health officials say 69 people with COVID-19 have died locally, as of Tuesday night. More than half of those were people connected to nursing homes or long-term care facilities, according to the health department.
More than 1,700 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the county have recovered and since been released from isolation, according to the latest figures released on May 17.
Statewide, DHHS reported 422 new cases Wednesday, for a total of 20,122, and 11 more deaths, for a total of 702.
COVID-19 updated data for Charlotte
As of May 17 — the last date demographic data was publicly available — county coronavirus data show:
▪ An average of about 57 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 6.3% of people who were tested were positive, showing a 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 8 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 20, 2020 at 12:37 PM.
