Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on June 27
Updated at 12:23 p.m. June 27, 2020
We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about the coronavirus in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Cases top 60,000
At least 60,537 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 1,318 have died, according to state and county health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Saturday reported an additional 1,719 cases of the virus, up from 5,818 on Friday. Fifteen more people died.
At least 888 coronavirus patients were in North Carolina hospitals on Saturday, down from 892 the day before. Tuesday saw a record high, with 915 hospitalizations.
Health officials on Saturday reported completing an additional 19,006 tests, for a total of 855,131. The percentage of tests returned positive as of June 25 was 10%.
The percent positive rate cannot be calculated by simply dividing the number of cases by the number of completed tests, mainly due to the timing of when tests are administered and when and how test results are submitted to the state from labs.
Judge denies bid to reopen by bars
Judge James Gale ruled Friday that bars in North Carolina will remain closed during Phase Two, finding Gov. Roy Cooper was “within his rights as governor to choose to keep bars closed as a means of slowing the spread of the coronavirus,” The News & Observer reported.
A group of 200 bars known as the North Carolina Bar & Tavern Association had sued Cooper seeking to reopen earlier this month.
The bars had argued they should not be treated differently than restaurants and breweries, which were allowed to reopen under Phase Two with certain social distancing guidelines in place. Cooper extended Phase Two for an additional three weeks on Wednesday.
Zack Medford, who owns Isaac Hunter’s Tavern in Raleigh and spearheaded the lawsuit, called another three weeks of closing a “death sentence” for bars.
Gale conceded in his opinion that Cooper’s “choices may be debatable” but said the bars could not prove his response to the coronavirus pandemic was “sufficiently irrational so as to be outside the realm of reasonableness.”
Unmasked protesters gather in Raleigh
Protesters demanding North Carolina be reopened arrived in downtown Raleigh on Friday with a petition for State House Speaker Tim Moore.
The petition with 6,000 signatures asks lawmakers to block Cooper’s mask requirement and investigate his executive order, according to Ashley Smith, co-founder of ReopenNC.
The assembly of just under 100 people — none of whom were wearing masks — lined up outside the Legislative building around noon, The News & Observer reported.
Many did not enter because of a mandatory temperature screening they said was an intrusion.
Once inside, Adam Smith, Ashley Smith’s husband, gave a speech in Moore’s doorway.
Bill shields NC universities from tuition refunds
North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that would give colleges and universities immunity against lawsuits brought over COVID-19 closures during the 2020 spring semester — including legal claims for tuition refunds.
Several universities have already been sued after classes moved online this spring, The News & Observer reported.
Thursday’s bill applies to all 17 campuses in the UNC System, community colleges and private universities statewide for legal actions taken on or after March 27.
RDU’s busiest airline adds safety measures
Delta, the busiest airline operating out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport before COVID-19 stunted flights, is implementing changes it hopes will attract customers as the pandemic drags on.
A key change is the airline’s mask requirement, The News & Observer reported.
“We know masks are the single most important thing that the flying public can do to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus,” said John Azzaro, Delta’s general manager at RDU.
Delta is also filling its airplanes to 60% capacity and leaving middle seats open to allow travelers to socially distance themselves.
State accuses nursing home of lapses
A Rowan County nursing home linked to 18 coronavirus-related deaths put its residents in “immediate jeopardy,” according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
At least 168 residents and employees of The Citadel in Salisbury have tested positive for the disease, the worst outbreak of any nursing home in the state.
Sherri Stoltzfus, administrator for the facility, told The Charlotte Observer earlier this month that allegations about the facility or its leaders making the spread of the virus worse are false.
“No one did anything wrong to create this,” she said in an email.
State officials investigated the facility starting April 25 and found “two dozen violations of government nursing home rules before and during the COVID-19 outbreak,” The Charlotte Observer reported. The facility has or plans to address the violations, according to a state report.
Push to reopen gyms
North Carolina lawmakers approved a new bill that would lift coronavirus-related restrictions on gyms. It was the sixth time the legislature tried to reopen businesses that were closed under an executive order from Cooper.
The latest gym bill now heads to the governor. The proposal was on the House calendar less than 24 hours after legislators failed to override Cooper’s veto of a bill that would have allowed bars and gyms to run at limited capacity and restaurants to have full capacity.
Senate’s 2 a.m. vote could affect mask mandate
The Republican-led North Carolina Senate voted at 2 a.m. Friday in a move that some say could make wearing masks in public illegal starting Aug. 1.
Under a North Carolina law enacted in the 1950s and targeted at the KKK, it’s illegal to wear a mask in public places. But lawmakers voted earlier this month to suspend the law until August as health experts encouraged face masks as a way to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Democrats had proposed allowing masks in public until February, but GOP lawmakers removed that provision from the bill, reverting to the August deadline, The N&O reported.
The vote came 15 hours before the Democratic governor’s mask mandate goes into effect.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 8:31 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on June 27."
