Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Jan. 15
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases surpass 659,000
At least 659,840 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 7,933 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reported 8,914 new COVID-19 cases, down from 9,853 the day before. The state health department said technical issues led to a higher case count Thursday.
An additional 108 coronavirus-related deaths were reported Friday. During the past week, an average of 86 deaths were reported each day — up from 39 at this time last month.
At least 3,916 people in North Carolina were reported hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Friday. That’s down from Thursday’s count of 3,990 — the highest single-day hospitalization total reported during the pandemic.
As of Wednesday, the latest day for which data are available, the state reported 11.2% of COVID-19 tests were positive. Health officials say the number should be about 5% to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
High school athletics team reports COVID-19 outbreak
Cary High School reported a coronavirus cluster on Friday, becoming the second school in Wake County to have an outbreak.
Cary High principal Nolan Bryant said a cluster of COVID-19 cases was identified on one of the school’s athletic teams but did not identify which team it was, The News & Observer reported. A state report indicates there are five cases of the coronavirus at Cary High, including three students and two staff members.
“The individuals in the cluster have been identified and have been directed to isolate or quarantine,” Bryant says in a letter to families and staff. “Individuals who have been infected or exposed to COVID-19 will not return to campus until they have met the requirements to do so.”
Lynn Road Elementary School in Raleigh previously reported a coronavirus cluster involving three staff and two students in December.
Health officials define a cluster of five or more cases linked to the same facility within 14 days.
Restaurants weigh usefulness of PPP loans
At least $284 billion was set aside in last month’s federal COVID-19 relief bill for federal Paycheck Protection Plan loans, but local restaurants say the first round of loans was something of a mixed bag.
Many pushed Congress for grants instead of the loan-based program, The News & Observer reported.
“We don’t really have any other choice,” said Cheetie Kumar, chef and co-owner of Raleigh’s Garland restaurant. “It’s a 24 week band-aid on an 18-month problem.”
Restaurant owners said the first rounds of PPP was to some extent ineffective. Stipulations in the bill required the money to be spent within eight weeks, despite many still being closed under statewide stay-at-home orders. At least 75% of the money also had to be used for payroll to qualify for loan forgiveness.
That figure has since dropped to 60%, but some owners say the math still doesn’t add up. At Kumar’s restaurants, she said her budget is only 30% payroll.
Wake opens vaccine waiting list
Wake County will allow eligible recipients to go on a COVID-19 vaccine waiting list starting Tuesday, and appointments will be prioritized according to age and vulnerability to the virus.
“People don’t have to worry about being the first person to call our phone line or visit our online tool at precisely 8:30 a.m. Tuesday,” Dr. Jason Wittes, Wake County’s pharmacy director, said in a news release Friday that announced the process.
Instead, they’ll be asked about their age, whether they are a health care worker, if they have an established primary care provider and their contact information, The News & Observer reported. The person will then be added to the waitlist and contacted via phone, email or text message when the county’s vaccine supply reaches that person’s place on the waitlist.
People can call 919-250-1515 or register online at wakegov.com/vaccine starting at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 19, to get on the waitlist.
Black leaders tackle skepticism over COVID-19 vaccine
Health and government officials are targeting communities skeptical about the coronavirus vaccine with personal testimonials, plays and public resources.
The Black community, which has been disproportionately impacted by the virus, has historically been wary of government medical attention, so it is a particular focus for this outreach. So far around 19,000 Black or African American people have been vaccinated in North Carolina, while just 22% of Black North Carolinians in nine counties said they’d be willing to get vaccinated in a recent survey.
Faye Williams was the first frontline worker and first Black person to be vaccinated in the Triangle. She spoke on a COVID-19 vaccine information panel at St. Joseph’s AME Church in Durham’s historically Black neighborhood of Hayti to promote the vaccine to skeptical African Americans, The News & Observer reported.
“I stand before you as exhibit A,” Williams, 65, said at the church. “I felt like I could be a living example and advocate for the vaccine. I believe, and it’s been proven to me, that the vaccine is safe.”
Amy Adams Ellis, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency is committed to presenting information to wary communities from sources they trust.
“One of the guiding principles for North Carolina’s COVID-19 Vaccine Plan is that transparent, accurate, and frequent public communications is essential to building trust,” she told The N&O. “We are undertaking a comprehensive effort to make sure that North Carolinians can make an informed decision about getting a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Remote learning presents challenges to Spanish-speaking students
Spanish-speaking students are struggling to keep up in online classes — particularly in Durham Public Schools, where Hispanic students make up more than 33% of the population.
Some parents have struggled navigating English-only websites to access their students’ course materials. Others lack experience with the technology they use, The News & Observer reported.
“With the Latino community, most of the people who come from Latin America are poor people. They don’t have computer skills,” said María Luisa Solis, a parent of a high school junior at Middle College High School. “They don’t talk, they don’t write English.”
Sometimes the students don’t know how to turn in an assignment, so it goes missing or arrives late.
Their parents end up trying to translate blocks of text on Google, or sending screenshots to other parents for help, according to The N&O. Durham Public Schools has a Multilingual Resource Center where interpreters can help parents find the answers to questions about things like logging in or finding a WiFi hot spot. The calls have been nonstop.
“There’s been no moment, like, ‘oh, we’re catching our breath,” supervisor Pablo Friedmann said. “It’s just been nonstop, day after day, week after week, since July.”
NC to offer vaccines to people 65 and older
North Carolina is changing criteria for COVID-19 vaccines, making them available for people ages 65 and older.
Gov. Roy Cooper made the announcement to county commissioners on Thursday.
Under the state’s rollout plan, vaccine doses were first offered to people 75 and older last week. So far, supplies have been limited when compared to demand for appointments.
North Carolina’s newest planned expansion comes after Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said offering vaccines for residents ages 65 and older would make the process smoother.
Deadliest week reported in Charlotte area
Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte, reported its deadliest week during the pandemic.
In the past week, 69 deaths were reported, bringing the toll to 675, The Charlotte Observer reported Friday.
Earlier this week, Mecklenburg County health officials announced a directive that urged residents to stay home and urged people to hold virtual activities. The guidance isn’t mandatory and expires on Feb. 2.
Most eligible Wake firefighters didn’t sign up for vaccine
Most of the Wake County firefighters who were early in line for COVID-19 vaccines haven’t signed up for them.
Across the 20 Raleigh area departments, 645 of the 1,670 firefighters eligible for vaccines have decided to get them, data show.
“There’s just some angst about getting the vaccine that was approved under emergency use authorization,” said Darrell Alford, Wake County director of fire services and emergency management.
Also in Wake County, roughly 70% of eligible EMS workers were vaccinated, The News & Observer reported Friday.
Wake and Charlotte-Meck schools stick with remote learning
Wake County’s 157,000 K-12 public school students will continue remote learning for at least another month.
The school board voted 7-2 on Thursday to delay a return to in-person classes. Members said they would re-evaluated in mid-February.
Most students were scheduled to return to school campuses Wednesday, but school leaders changed the plan due to a rise in COVID-19 cases across the state.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is also pushing back its return to in-person learning. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the school board voted 8-1 for students to continue remote instruction until at least Feb. 12.
The district has paused most in-person activities, including athletics, through Feb. 15. Some Charlotte-area private schools also suspended sports after Mecklenburg County health officials issued guidance that calls for schools to consider remote classes.
Large vaccine events to be held in NC
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday shared the names of sites that are set to hold large events as part of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Medical providers and local health departments will hold events in 21 counties across the state.
“These partners were selected because they were able to rapidly increase the number of vaccines they could deliver as part of this effort,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
Several of the providers hosting events are in the Triangle, The News & Observer reported.
In the Charlotte area, Atrium Health and its partners are pushing to give shots to 1 million people by early July. Bank of America Stadium and Charlotte Motor Speedway are expected to be among the mass vaccination sites included in the effort.
North Carolina lags behind many other states in administering vaccine doses. So far, officials have given out about one-third of the almost 1 million doses North Carolina received from the federal government, according to the N.C. Watchdog Reporting Network.
Across the state, county health departments in the network’s survey said some issues arose that made it difficult to deliver vaccines, including limited space due to social distancing guidance and a state system and short notice about how many doses they will receive.
Raleigh joins nationwide COVID-19 memorial
Some buildings in Raleigh will light up amber on Tuesday as part of a nationwide memorial to those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.
The event was organized by the National League of Cities and is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., will be lit up as part of the ceremony.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said she was “honored” to have the city participate.
“COVID has taken so much, and so many dear ones from us,” she said in a statement. “Honoring those whom we have lost to this terrible disease is a way to bring communities together.”
Coronavirus cases tied to jails in Wake, Durham
More than 100 coronavirus cases were reported among staff and people in custody at the Wake County jail, marking the facility’s worst outbreak during the pandemic.
The News & Observer is waiting for additional information from the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, which houses about 1,100 people at its two facilities in Raleigh.
There is also an active COVID-19 outbreak at the Durham County jail, which had 17 total infections as of Tuesday, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill report clusters
N.C. State University reported a group of COVID-19 cases in its athletics department.
While the Raleigh school didn’t indicate which teams were impacted, it said precautions are underway.
“All individuals who test positive as part of this cluster are being isolated, and close contacts quarantined,” N.C. State said Wednesday in a news release. “Contact tracing has been initiated with direct communication to anyone known to have been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.”
The ACC subsequently postponed the men’s basketball game on Saturday against Georgia Tech, citing a positive test within the N.C. State program.
Also on Wednesday, a cluster of coronavirus cases was reported at UNC-Chapel Hill among students who stayed on campus over winter break.
North Carolina health officials define a cluster as five or more cases in close proximity. The cases were found through surveillance testing among students living at Carmichael Residence Hall, The News & Observer reported.
Officials said those students have been identified and are being monitored in isolation at different residence halls.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 7:06 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Jan. 15."
