People hospitalized with COVID-19 in NC up more than 160 in one day as delta surges
North Carolina reported that 3,503 people are hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 Wednesday, an increase of 161 from Tuesday.
Hospitalizations have nearly quadrupled from a month ago as the state draws closer to the pandemic peak of 3,990 from mid-January.
New COVID cases increased by 6,130. The rate of new cases each day over the last week is over 5,900, a rate that has also nearly quadrupled over the last month, .
The rapid increase is due to the delta variant, a mutation of the coronavirus that’s more than three times as contagious as the original strain. Nearly 94% of sequenced virus in North Carolina in recent weeks is delta, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC data is from the four-week period ending July 31. The previous period, the state was at just over 86% of delta among sequenced virus.
The process for reporting variants delays the results by a few weeks, and few samples are tested. But health officials trust that the results indicate that delta is spreading rapidly, The News & Observer previously reported.
DHHS reported earlier this month that over 90% of hospitalizations in the state are among those unvaccinated.
As of Wednesday, 49% of all North Carolinians and 57% of those eligible for the shot, ages 12 and up, are fully vaccinated.
Among those age 65 and up, 85% are fully vaccinated.
The average age of hospitalization is 44, down from 61 in January.
Among the tests reported Wednesday, the latest available data, 13.5% returned positive. Over the last week of available data, an average of 12.4% of tests have returned positive per day.
State health officials have said they want that rate at 5% or lower, which experts say is an indication that spread of the virus is slowing.
The positive rate has increased rapidly, as the last time the rate was under 5% was mid-July.
DHHS reported 60 additional deaths due to COVID-19 Wednesday, but it didn’t specify the dates of those deaths. DHHS updates its totals for each date as information becomes available, so the 60 deaths could have happened days or weeks ago.
Deaths from the coronavirus in North Carolina have started to trend younger than from earlier in the pandemic, The News & Observer reported last week.
As of Wednesday, 14,212 North Carolinians have died due to COVID-19.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 1:54 PM with the headline "People hospitalized with COVID-19 in NC up more than 160 in one day as delta surges."