NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD for Sunday, January 3, 2021
294th Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite, Act with our North Carolina Daily Kos community. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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1/3/2020 1:00 PM
NC
| 558,437 | 6,526 | 403,488 | 148,057 |
Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on Jan. 3
CASES SURPASS 558,000
At least 558,437 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 6,892 have died, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Saturday reported 9,365 new COVID-19 cases, down from the record 9,527 recorded the day before. Both counts were released Saturday. Friday’s record surpassed the previous mark set on Dec. 18 by more than 1,000 cases.
A record 3,479 people in North Carolina were reported hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Saturday. As of Thursday, the latest date for which data are available, 15.5% of COVID-19 tests were positive. That’s above health officials’ goal of 5% or lower.
“We begin 2021 in our most dangerous position in this pandemic,” Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state health department, said in a news release Saturday. “We have critically high rates of spread in much of our state.”
“These numbers need to be a wake up call,” Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted late Saturday afternoon.Cohen urged North Carolinians to avoid gatherings with those they don’t live with.
CDC MODEL PREDICTS 1,100 MORE DEATHS IN JANUARY
A national projection model from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts 1,100 more people may die from the coronavirus in North Carolina during the first three weeks of January.
It predicts the state will reach 8,000 total deaths by Jan. 23.
While NC COVID cases spike, new CDC report says that number actually could be higher
GREENVILLE, N.C. — North Carolina reported record-breaking coronavirus case numbers on New Year's Day and a significantly elevated number on Saturday, but there's reason to believe that the actual case counts could be higher.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the Sofia coronavirus antigen test showed false negative results in about 60 percent of those with asymptomatic coronavirus cases.
The Sofia antigen test was the first to get emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is one of the types of antigen tests being used in North Carolina.
Rachel Roper, a researcher at East Carolina University's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, says that the error is likely because antigen tests are much less sensitive than PCR tests.
"The PCR test is the most sensitive and the most accurate for COVID diagnostics," she said. "When you start looking at the antigen tests and the rapid tests... Those are much less sensitive. There's no amplification that occurs."
N.C. reports nearly 10,000 new COVID-19 cases on consecutive days to start the new year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - North Carolina is reporting record-breaking numbers with nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases on consecutive days to start the new year.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported the new records for COVID-19 key metrics for Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2021. On Jan. 1, 2021, North Carolina reported its highest one-day number of COVID-19 cases with 9,527 new cases reported, exceeding the state’s previous highest day set on Dec. 18, 2020 by more than 1,000.
Cases remained high Saturday, Jan. 2, with 9,356 new cases reported. A total of 6,892 people have died from the virus in North Carolina, officials say. Records were also set for the percent of tests that were positive and hospitalizations.
On Saturday,15.5 percent of tests were positive, the highest rate since the start of the pandemic.
These potential false negatives are worrisome due to the already known spikes in cases that are occurring, but also because any increase caused by holiday gatherings has likely only just begun to show itself in the numbers. "You start seeing cases a week or 10 days after events," Dr. Roper explained. "And then you see hospitalizations a week or two after that really go up, and then you see deaths increasing after that."
With so many getting tested before traveling for holiday gatherings, possibly flawed negative tests could have given some a false sense of security. "You cannot trust the antigen tests if you get a negative," Roper said. "You have to get a PCR test after that to make sure you really are negative."
Thousands mourn as NC COVID-19 metrics set new records within the state
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- As many look ahead to 2021, thousands of North Carolinas can't forget those they've left behind in 2020. "My grandfather got COVID, the healthiest man I knew... he died in three weeks' time on a ventilator alone. It's so important to me to let people know how incredibly real this virus is, how it will take the healthiest among us in absolutely no time," said Brie Hammer. "In three weeks', time, he went from standing healthy to a ventilator. He died on my birthday." Hammer was one of the more than a dozen people who gathered in Chavis Park Saturday afternoon to remember those who died from COVID-19. "I really wanted to open this year on a positive note," Hammer said. "Coming together as a community is, unfortunately, something we've had to avoid during COVID-19 but that's why we thought a socially distant event to give people the chance to come and publicly cry." Hammer is part of the group Black Hammer that hosted Saturday's event and distributes PPE to people in the community. "The COVID-19 rate specifically in the triangle has been astronomical and as businesses and the state reopen, we want to make sure people are protected in the best way," Hammer said.