We have fewer COVID-19 patients in Charlotte — why have there been more deaths?
Coronavirus case counts, hospitalizations and the positivity rate in Mecklenburg County have decreased in recent weeks. The number of new COVID-19 related deaths, though, has yet to slow down.
Health experts view the death toll has a lagging metric — meaning the number of people dying with the virus will be the last to show improvement even as the region’s overall COVID-19 trends get better.
On Friday, Mecklenburg County reported seven new deaths, bringing the total to 27 in the last week. That’s a slight increase compared to the 19 total deaths reported last week.
In the past week, the average number of deaths reported per day increased to nearly four — up from two at the end of July and start of August.
This increase in deaths locally appears to mirror a trend observed across the United States: Weeks after a peak in cases, more deaths are reported. As the caseload shrinks, a corresponding decrease is expected in fatalities but not right away.
The most-recently reported deaths likely reflect what was happening in North Carolina in July when cases were at the highest, said secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen in a press conference Thursday.
“We will see the increase (in deaths) to reflect the increase in cases but we will also likely see that stabilize and decline in the next couple of weeks as well,” she said.
In Mecklenburg County, daily new cases, hospitalizations and the percent of tests that are positive have all decreased recently.
State health officials reported 47 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the lowest number of new cases reported in a single day since late-May. The seven-day average of new cases has been falling since mid-July. Over the past week, the average number of new cases reported in Mecklenburg is 157, compared to 265 at the end of July and 372 nearly one month ago.
On average, the number of people hospitalized for coronavirus has declined. In the last two weeks, the number of patients decreased from 180 to 155 people.
The positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in Mecklenburg over the last week is 6.7% — a figure which has been steadily dropping since early July when the positivity rate was around 11%.
North Carolina reported 1,346 new cases on Friday for a total of 142,170 cases total since March. There have been 2,313 deaths state-wide.
DHHS reports a total of 22,850 lab-confirmed cases in Mecklenburg since the first case was detected on March 11.
COVID-19 trends in Charlotte
As of August 12 — the last date demographic data was publicly available — county coronavirus data show:
▪ People under the age of 40 make up the highest percentage of lab-confirmed cases at 60% of the total.
▪ Deaths and hospitalizations continue to be most prevalent among older adults. About half of those people who have died from COVID-19 locally were connected to “active outbreaks” in long-term care facilities or nursing homes. There were 57 deaths in June in Mecklenburg, 64 in July and 46 in August so far.
▪ About 75% of all people diagnosed with coronavirus in the county have since recovered and been released from isolation, meaning enough time has passed since their symptoms stopped.
