Dine out or attend other ‘mass gatherings’ in Charlotte? COVID-19 test might be next.

People who have recently dined at crowded restaurants and breweries in the Charlotte area should get tested for the coronavirus, Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told reporters Friday.

Mecklenburg trends measuring the spread of the coronavirus are still moving in the wrong direction, Harris said. Anyone who has been out in “mass gatherings” should be tested, she said.

And Harris has seen pictures of area restaurants that would fit that criteria, she said, especially if people aren’t wearing masks or cloth face coverings.

But Harris said those places are not being ordered to close by Mecklenburg Public Health, even if employees test positive for the coronavirus.

The health department doesn’t have the authority to do that right now, Harris said. Mecklenburg, for now, does not intend to release a list of businesses where employees have tested positive for the virus, she said.

“It will not be a routine thing that we do,” Harris said, adding Mecklenburg is working closely with impacted restaurants.

Public health officials have also recommended anyone participating in the protests following the police killing of George Floyd should get tested for COVID-19. Those protests are not necessarily a hot spot for COVID-19 infections, despite rising case totals seen in Mecklenburg, Harris said.

Data from other cities with early protests — including in Minneapolis, Boston and Seattle — have shown that when protesters wear masks and stay outside, COVID-19 infection rates are low, Harris said.

Face mask recommendation

Wary of another lockdown, Mecklenburg County commissioners have strongly urged residents to wear face masks in recent weeks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But it could be nearly three weeks until county commissioners have the opportunity to consider a mandate on face masks.

County Manager Dena Diorio said Friday that commissioners have asked for an official recommendation from public health officials by July 7 on enacting a mandate — similar to requirements for Orange and Durham counties, as well as Raleigh. Though the board has a public policy meeting on Tuesday, commissioners typically do not vote at those meetings. The July 7 meeting would be the first regularly scheduled meeting where the board would typically be able to vote on such a mandate, commissioner Pat Cotham said.

Not all Mecklenburg towns support such a requirement, Diorio has said. And without their consent, Mecklenburg cannot unilaterally mandate cloth face coverings.

Social distancing levels, measured by publicly available mobility data, are nearly back to what they were before the county’s stay-at-home order went into effect, Harris said.

“Not everyone is being compliant with Phase Two. If we continue to expand, I’m concerned about the message that sends to our community,” Harris said about the possibility of North Carolina entering Phase Three by the end of next week.

Wearing masks is crucial to protecting loved ones and neighbors, said Dana Rice, an assistant professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. It’s important to think about face coverings as “community protective equipment,” she said.

“The evidence suggests that wearing masks works,” Rice said in an interview. “If we don’t follow what the evidence suggests,we’re going to have to move toward the most restrictive stay-at-home (order).”

Nursing homes and construction

Coronavirus testing will expand at nursing homes, Harris said. More than two-thirds of deaths in the county are linked to COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care facilities, the latest data shows.

“I believe we have not been doing enough testing with those individuals,” Harris said. “And we are ramping that up now, unfortunately — not soon enough.”

There has not been a “significant increase” of coronavirus clusters at construction sites in Mecklenburg either, Harris said Friday.

That’s partly due to education and hygiene efforts at sites, Harris said, after Mecklenburg first learned about those clusters in late May. But she said she’d learned on Thursday about a construction site where workers were not wearing masks.

As of Friday morning, Mecklenburg has seen 7,767 cases of COVID-19 and 136 deaths among county residents, Harris said.

Rising hospitalizations

Daily hospitalizations have climbed during Phase Two of the governor’s reopening plan, and the trend worries state and local public health officials.

Harris said local hospital systems are operating at between 70% and 80% capacity, as Novant Health and Atrium Health resume elective procedures.

Mecklenburg is working closely with the hospitals to ensure they do not enter a “red zone,” which could be concerning if there’s a surge that overwhelms limited resources, Harris said.

“Their plans are in place,” Harris said Friday. “They also have the ability to scale up.”

The county hit a new high in its daily count of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with 116 on June 13. The next day, the number jumped to 126. And that number has continued to rise. The most recently released county data show 132 hospitalized COVID-19 patients on June 16.

Between June 10 and June 17, an average of 118 people with lab-confirmed COVID-19 were hospitalized in the county, which is an increase over a 14-day period.

‘Still no cure’

Several other key trends measuring the spread of COVID-19 have risen since the state began reopening, too.

Roughly 2,500 COVID-19 tests are being conducted in Mecklenburg daily by Novant Health and Atrium Health, Harris said.

As Mecklenburg and the state have pushed for more testing, COVID-19 lab-confirmed cases have jumped. Some increase was expected as testing increased, but state officials say the simultaneous increase in the percentage of positive tests shows the infection rate may be climbing.

“I’ve said before that we will not test our way out of this pandemic,” Harris said Friday. “There is still no cure, and there is no vaccine. We do have evidence that suggests that cloth face coverings reduce the risk of spreading the virus.”

In early to mid-May, the percentage of positive tests had dropped to as low as 6.3%. As coronavirus restrictions have loosened, that percentage has climbed. Between June 10 and June 17, an average of 11% of people tested were positive for COVID-19.

A vast majority of people who have died due to COVID-19 have been 60 years or older. But the number of adults younger than 60 who have died from COVID-19 has increased. Between June 14 and June 17, six new Mecklenburg County deaths were reported — and three of those deaths were in people between ages 40 to 59.

And on June 10, Mecklenburg County announced a second death in an adult without underlying chronic conditions.

“We’ve been fairly lucky in Mecklenburg County in that our death rate has remained fairly low,” Harris said Friday. “But we are starting to see individuals who are younger, who are becoming infected and several have lost their lives.”

People must continue to follow health guidelines to flatten the curve, Rice, the UNC professor, said. Otherwise, hospitals could be overwhelmed if there’s a possible surge, which Harris predicts could occur in August or September.

”It’s not only thinking about the number of people who are ill and becoming infected,” Rice said. “We’re thinking about the limited resources we have to care for and treat people.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 1:04 PM.