Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Oct. 6
Click here for updates for Oct. 7.
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases top 221,000
At least 221,258 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 3,670 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported 1,504 new COVID-19 cases, down from 2,258 the day before. Monday’s new cases included unreported numbers from Sunday, when health officials said not all of the data could be processed because of a technical error.
Thirty-three deaths were added to the total on Tuesday.
About 7.9% of tests were reported positive on Sunday, the most recent day that data are available. That brings the seven-day average of positive tests to 6.2%. Health officials have said that figure should be 5% or lower.
At least 1,013 people in North Carolina were reported hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday. It’s the first time hospitalizations have topped 1,000 since Aug. 21.
Wake teachers warn against reopening schools
Dozens of teachers greeted the Wake County School Board on Tuesday during its first in-person meeting since March with signs warning that reopening schools could needlessly endanger the lives of educators and students.
The board voted last week to let elementary and middle school students return for in-person instruction on Oct. 26.
“It’s heartbreaking for me as a teacher because I want to see my students so badly in person and they’re really struggling,” Ginny Clayton, an English As A Second Language teacher at Clayton High School, told The News & Observer. “But that’s not the criteria for coming back to school, it’s safety. We ultimately have to do what’s right by our kids by keeping them safe.”
Some of the protesters were accompanied by their children, including one who held a sign up that read “Why aren’t you protecting my mom! I’m not ok with her being sacrificed.”
Parents previously protested the schools staying closed, saying the reopening process was taking too long and urging the board to let students return, according to The N&O.
Third grade teacher dies from the coronavirus
Julie Davis, a 49-year-old third grade teacher at Norwood Elementary School in Stanly County, died Sunday after a less than 10-day battle with the coronavirus.
Davis had taught third and fourth graders for 17 years at various schools in North Carolina, including Page Street Elementary School in the Montgomery County town of Troy, N.C., the Charlotte Observer reported.
The school district and county health officials deny she contracted the virus at school. Stan Andrews, Davis’s brother, says the opposite.
“I said to her, ‘Julie, where did you get it?’” he told the Observer. “She said, ‘I got it at school. There was a student that had it.’”
Davis woke up with a headache on Friday, Sept. 26 and went to get tested for COVID-19. Her test results came back positive two days later. By Wednesday, she was hospitalized at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst.
The doctors were able to get some of her symptoms — a fever, vomiting and dehydration — under control. But she developed a cough that night and was having trouble breathing. They put her on a BiPAP machine on Oct. 1, the Observer reported.
Davis was put on a ventilator at 1 a.m. Sunday. She died two hours later. According to her brother, the teacher had no underlying conditions but was overweight.
She was also passionate about her job, and resolute in her decision to return to school when Stanly County announced elementary students could return full-time.
“She was nervous,” her brother said. “But it was her job, and she was gonna do it.”
Cooper stresses COVID-19 ‘is not over’
Gov. Roy Cooper expressed frustration Tuesday over reports of large gatherings in Washington, D.C., where guests haven’t been wearing masks or properly socially distancing, telling North Carolinians to stay vigilant.
“This thing is not over,” he said during a news conference. “You can see what happens when those things occur, even when there’s testing going on.”
It was Cooper’s first news conference since the state reopened bars, movie theaters and other businesses on Friday as part of Phase 3 of lifting coronavirus-related restrictions.
But his warning comes as hospitalizations in the state spike, and he cautioned things could get worse later this fall and into the winter, The News & Observer reported. Cooper also emphasized getting students back in school and boosting the economy.
“You don’t do that by pretending that the pandemic doesn’t exist and you don’t do it by acting like it’s not gonna hurt anybody,” he said. “When in actuality, we know that it has killed over 3,600 North Carolinians and over 210,000 Americans. So we all need to work together.”
At least 18 people — including President Donald Trump, who has downplayed the severity of the virus, and N.C. Sen. Thom Tillis — have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days.
Jill Biden holding socially distant NC rally
Jill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Joe, is hosting a North Carolina rally with social distancing in mind.
The former second lady is expected to hold a get-out-the-vote event Tuesday afternoon at Pitt Community College in Greenville. The rally, scheduled to take place on a field, was only open to people chosen by her husband’s campaign, The News & Observer reported.
Later on Tuesday, the campaign says Jill Biden will meet with military members and families in Fayetteville.
Tillis free of COVID-19 symptoms
Sen. Thom Tillis is free of coronavirus symptoms after announcing Friday he tested positive for the virus.
He will continue to quarantine at home in Huntersville, The News & Observer reported.
“Senator Tillis feels great and has regained his sense of taste and smell,” the statement read. “He is no longer exhibiting any symptoms and will continue to self-isolate. Senator Tillis and his wife Susan remain grateful for the outpouring of prayers and well wishes they’ve received from North Carolinians.”
Tillis announced Friday night that he tested positive for COVID-19 and will self-quarantine for two weeks. He said Saturday night he had mild symptoms but no fever. None of his campaign staff or his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus.
In the days before receiving the positive result, Tillis debated Democratic opponent Cal Cunningham, attended meet and greets and round tables in North Carolina and met with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and voted on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C.
His positive test came after news broke that President Donald Trump has COVID-19.
Cunningham, however, has tested negative for the coronavirus, his campaign announced Saturday. He was expected to be tested again Monday, according to The N&O.
Tillis on Tuesday morning had his first public appearances after contracting the disease.
On “Fox and Friends” and a telephone town hall, the senator “said he would be able to participate in next week’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and called for challenger Cal Cunningham to offer a ‘full explanation’ of sexual text messages sent to a woman who is not his wife,” The News & Observer reported.
“I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry,” Cunningham said in a statement. “The first step in repairing those relationships is taking complete responsibility, which I do.”
Betsy DeVos visits Raleigh
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos promoted school choice during the coronavirus pandemic on a visit to Raleigh on Monday.
The visit comes as President Donald Trump and other members of the White House cope with a COVID-19 outbreak.
DeVos spoke at a round table discussion hosted by Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. She spoke about expanding programs that use taxpayer funds to pay tuition for families at private schools, pointing to the “challenges that families across the nation have faced since the coronavirus pandemic caused public schools to switch from in-person instruction to online learning,” The News & Observer reported.
The secretary was tested Friday after Trump’s diagnosis was made public, and the results were negative, her spokesperson said. Attendees at the event Monday wore masks and were properly socially distanced, according to the N&O.
Some movie theaters to close after reopening in NC
Days after movie theaters were allowed to reopen in North Carolina, one chain is temporarily closing its cinemas nationwide.
Regal, which said last week that it was reopening 13 locations across the state, is shutting down all its facilities on Thursday.
“Parent company Cineworld said the closings are due to studios being reluctant to release new films and because major U.S. markets like New York remain closed without a reopening timeline,” The Charlotte Observer reported Monday.
The closures come after the state entered Phase 3 of lifting coronavirus-related restrictions on Friday. Movie theaters and other entertainment venues were allowed to operate for the first time since March, with limited capacity.
Positive test shuts down Wake Forest fire station
A fire station in Wake Forest is temporarily closed after a firefighter working there tested positive for COVID-19, the town announced Saturday.
Fire Station #2 is being cleaned and sanitized and everyone working there has been sent home to self-isolate, according to the town, The News & Observer reported Sunday. The fire department is also contact tracing to determine who else may have been exposed to the virus.
At least five firefighters have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Tuesday, The News & Observer reported.
The case will not disrupt fire services in the town, officials say.
Wake Forest is about 17 miles from Raleigh.
In August, nearby Clayton Fire Department also saw a COVID-19 outbreak. Seventeen firefighters tested positive, and the outbreak led to two deaths.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 7:32 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Oct. 6."
