Post-Memorial Day, Mecklenburg’s new COVID-19 cases fall. 5 new deaths reported.
Mecklenburg County has seen a total of 3,403 coronavirus cases, according to state health data Tuesday morning. The number is cumulative since mid-March.
Five new coronavirus-related deaths were reported late Tuesday, bringing the total number of people who have died in Mecklenburg County to 79. About half of those were people connected to nursing homes or long-term care facilities, according to the county health department.
North Carolina is in its second phase of reopening. New COVID-19 cases could take up to two weeks to identify, according to Mecklenburg Health Director Gibbie Harris. That accounts for the time it takes for a person to show symptoms, access testing and receive test results.
On Tuesday, the county added 23 new cases from the previous day, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported. The number of new cases reported Tuesday is far lower than the average.
From May 20 to 26, the average number of new cases reported daily in Mecklenburg was 100. For the week prior, the average was 82.
It is unclear how Memorial Day and the long weekend affected the number of tests administered or processed in Mecklenburg County. Health officials have said they aim to test nearly double the number of people per week in May, compared to April.
The number of new cases reported each day fluctuates and Mecklenburg’s health department has said many people with the coronavirus have not been tested because they are asymptomatic or do not meet criteria 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.
Statewide, DHHS reported 176 new cases Tuesday, for a total of 24,140, and 12 more deaths, for a total of 766.
Mecklenburg COVID-19 update
As of May 25 — the last date demographic data was publicly available — county coronavirus data show:
▪ An average of about 70 people with lab-confirmed coronavirus infections were hospitalized at acute-care facilities in the past week. Those numbers reflect an increase over the past two weeks, according to Mecklenburg health officials.
▪ An average of 7.4% of people who were tested were positive, showing a slight increase over the last 14 days, health officials say. The figure includes only COVID-19 tests conducted by Atrium Health and Novant Health.
▪ Round 2 in 3 cases have met the criteria to be released from isolation.
▪ 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.
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 26, 2020 at 12:17 PM.
