COVID cases slow. ‘Masks are working,’ Meck health director says
Districts with mask requirements in K-12 classrooms, like Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, are faring better with limited COVID-19 outbreaks — a difference shown in the latest public health data, county Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told commissioners this week.
Harris said those schools not requiring masks are 3.5 times more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks than those requiring masks, based on data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
State data cited by Harris show that since school started through Sept. 26, three counties in North Carolina without mask mandates in schools are averaging more clusters of COVID cases than districts with mask requirements. The majority of public school districts statewide have universal mask mandates indoors.
“Masks are working,” Harris said.
Mecklenburg County has a mask mandate for public spaces, which includes schools. Close to 56% of the county’s population is fully vaccinated, as of Oct. 8.
In CMS, the latest data show fewer cases reported among students and staff for the week ending Oct. 1, compared to weekly reports throughout September. For the week ending Oct. 1, which is the most recent data available, there were 311 new cases reported among students and 42 among staff members, for a total of 353. The two weeks prior, the totals were 481 and 494.
COVID has impacted children
As the Observer has reported recently, the infection rate locally and the number of people needing hospital-level care for COVID-19 have been falling. After a late August and early September peak of cases related to the more-contagious delta variant, the average number of positive tests among Mecklenburg residents has dropped steadily but slowly.
As of Friday, the latest data, the county has an 8.8% positivity rate. County elected leaders have decided to leave a mask mandate in place until the percent of positive tests falls to 5% and is sustained at that level.
Over the past week, an average of 288 people have been hospitalized each day with COVID illness. That’s down from 336 just one week prior and a significant improvement from much of August and September.
Harris said this week the majority of people who have died and who have been hospitalized with coronavirus complications have been unvaccinated adults.
“Unfortunately, people in intensive care units are using ventilators more than they have in the past but at least the numbers are trending in the right direction,” the health director said.
The 7-day average of new cases reported daily was 320 as of Friday, based on N.C. Department of Health and Human Services data for Mecklenburg. That’s down from 374 the week prior, and an average of 540 per day throughout August.
Heightened spread of COVID-19 over the last two months, coinciding with the start of school, has particularly impacted children.
Harris said 30% of total cases the last few weeks have been in children under the age of 17. Of those cases in young people, she said, 48% of those were positive tests from children 5-11 years old.
County health officials have said there have been two pediatric deaths in 2021. More than 1,200 residents in Mecklenburg have died from COVID since last March. The majority were adults over age 60.
An elementary-aged child died after a battle with COVID-19 at the end of September, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools confirmed to The Charlotte Observer last week. The student was a first-grader at Stoney Creek Elementary.
CMS reported that as of Friday morning, 15,242 employees had submitted their vaccination status. Of those, 13,135 employees said they are vaccinated, about 86% vaccinated. The district says it will verify the status of employees so the numbers may change.
CMS began requesting vaccination information from its nearly 19,000 employees on Sept. 20.
