COVID-19 cases tied to Charlotte church reported in 2nd county, total exceeds 100
Coronavirus cases connected to the United House of Prayer for All People in Charlotte have been detected beyond Mecklenburg County, health officials said Friday. Two people with COVID-19 in Iredell County are connected to the church’s events and the health department is tracking a total of 101 confirmed cases.
In addition to three previously reported deaths, county health officials said they are investigating one additional death as possibly connected to church events held in early October. The growing case count represents the largest outbreak in Charlotte and surrounds connected by health officials to a particular gathering or location.
A total of 12 people who reside at a senior living facility near the church have confirmed cases linked to the events, Mecklenburg Deputy Health Director Raynard Washington said Friday.
Also Friday, the health department released more details about people who have died due to exposure from the events. Two were women and one was a man. All three people were Black, health officials said. The man and one woman were over the age of 60 and the third was a woman between the ages of 40 and 59, officials said.
The county first warned of the cluster Oct. 17, nearly a week after the church, located on Beatties Ford Road, hosted convocation events from Oct. 10 and 11. At the time, Mecklenburg officials said nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus had been linked to the church’s events. That number has quickly grown.
Two of the 101 confirmed cases are people who live in Iredell County while the rest are Mecklenburg County residents. The county said its health officials are in contact with other health departments, but that no confirmed cases linked to the church have been reported yet outside Iredell and Mecklenburg counties.
Washington earlier said that he believes at least 1,000 people attended events at the church Oct. 4-11, based on videos he saw.
Mecklenburg officials held free testing near the church Thursday and Friday, after officials said church leaders did not agree to hold testing on site. Church officials have not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Observer.
Washington urged those who attended or have had close contact to attendees to get a test and participate in contact tracing efforts.
“If we call you please answer the phone, please cooperate and be truthful. It’s really important as we work to try to slow the impact of this outbreak in our community,” he said.
He said county officials have been speaking to church leaders daily and had advised them against holding events for 14 days.
Washington said that the positivity rate for a Sunday testing event had been higher than the county average, and that it is likely there will be more confirmed cases once test results from Thursday and Friday are processed.
As of Friday, county officials were monitoring 137 close contacts connected to people who attended the event.
A list of Mecklenburg COVID-19 testing sites can be found at: https://meck.co/3ka8gLE.
For those visiting StarMed testing locations, officials ask people to pre-register by texting “COVID” to 704-850-6996.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 12:27 PM.