Mecklenburg County coronavirus cases on the rise again after 1-day dip

Mecklenburg County’s coronavirus case count rose by 117 Wednesday, according to state data, returning to a string of 100-plus daily cases over the past two weeks after a one-day dip to just 62 new cases on Tuesday.

The county has now recorded 5,861 confirmed cases since mid-March, the state Department of Health and Human Services says. County officials say 119 people in the county have died of causes related to COVID-19.

While three out of four cases reported in Mecklenburg have been among people 20 to 59, nearly all the deaths have been of people 60 and older, the county has reported. Hispanic residents, especially young adults, account for more than one-third of reported cases.

Social distancing, seen as a key to reducing the spread of infection, has waned recently, county health officials say. In light of its continued rise in cases, Mecklenburg has been told it needs to increase testing to 20,000 people a day — 10 times its current rate, county officials said Tuesday.

State health officials say people who have taken part in mass protests around the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, including nightly events in Charlotte since May 29, should be among those tested.

The former Charlotte Housing Authority, now known as Inlivian, and Novant Health are distributing masks to seniors and low-income families this week.

Novant’s mobile unit distributed masks at Inlivian housing sites on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to the authority. Wednesday afternoon, masks will be available at Hampton Creste Apartments from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. On Thursday, they will be available from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Nia Point Apartments.

The Charlotte Area Transit System also had 16,000 cloth face masks to give to transit riders Wednesday at the Charlotte Transportation Center in uptown. The distributions, which will continue weekly at the transit center, were made possible by coordination with Novant Health’s mask supplier, CATS said.

More than 1,000 new cases were reported statewide, DHHS said Wednesday, for a total since early March of 38,171. The department says 1,053 N.C. residents have died, and 780 were hospitalized Wednesday.

Mecklenburg COVID-19 update

As of June 7 — the last date demographic data was publicly available — county coronavirus data show:

▪ An average of about 98 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 9.7% of people who were tested were positive, showing an increase 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.

▪ More than half of Mecklenburg cases have met the criteria to be released from isolation.

▪ About 1 in 10 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.

▪ The exact number of people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg with COVID-19 is unknown and many people with the virus have not been tested, health officials say. The case total likely represents a “fraction” of all people with coronavirus, Mecklenburg officials have said.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 1:11 PM.