Four additional COVID-19 deaths were recorded by the Stokes County Health Department this week, a grim counterpoint to the area’s steadily improving testing and hospitalization metrics.
As of Tuesday, the most recent update by the department, there have been a total of 161 deaths.
Active cases were at 203, a decrease of 70 in the past week. Hospitalizations are down to two, down three from a week ago.
The total number of lab-confirmed positive cases stands at 11,219, up 122 from last week, but that increase is small in compared to recent weeks when the highly contagious Omicron variant swept through the county. There have been 10,853 recoveries.
Meanwhile the county’s Board of Education celebrated these much more positive numbers and voted to drop its school masking policy (see related article). Last week N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper encouraged local governments and school districts to end their mask mandates.
● At least 2,571,397 coronavirus cases have been reported in North Carolina, and at least 22,296 people have died since March 2020, according to state health officials. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported 1,716 new COVID-19 cases, compared with 2,060 reported Monday, 3,567 reported Sunday, and 4,261 reported Saturday.
As of Feb. 20, the latest day for which data is available, 11.9% of coronavirus tests were reported positive; officials say 5% or lower is the target rate to slow the spread of the virus.
Roughly 75% of adults in North Carolina have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and about 71% are fully vaccinated. Of the state’s total population, about 61% are fully vaccinated and about 65% have received at least one dose. More than three million ”additional/booster” doses have been administered in North Carolina, the health department said.
● Average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are continuing to fall in the U.S., an indicator that the omicron variant’s hold is weakening across the country. Total confirmed cases reported Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn from around 800,850 five weeks ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data. “I think what’s influencing the decline, of course, is that omicron is starting to run out of people to infect,” said Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and infectious disease chief at the University of Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine. COVID hospitalizations are down from a national seven-day average of 146,534 on Jan. 20 to 80,185 the week ending in Feb 13, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID data tracker. Public health experts say they are feeling hopeful that more declines are ahead and that the country is shifting from being in a pandemic to an ‘endemic’ that is more consistent and predictable.
● Novant Health has eased — effective immediately — certain COVID-19 restrictions. Patients are now allowed an unlimited number of visitors so long as those visitors are 12 or older. Inpatient, critical care, neonatal ICU and pediatric patients will no longer be limited to two visitors per day. The changes to Novant hospital rules are in effect in Winston-Salem, Clemmons, Kernersville and Thomasville. Restrictions remain for COVID patients who are hospitalized or in the emergency room, as well as patients who are being tested for COVID. Those patients can be visited by a local clergy or a religious official at the request of the patient or family.
● As the world approaches the second anniversary of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization, on March 11, more nations are rolling out — or are discussing the possibility of — fourth doses of coronavirus vaccine for their most vulnerable. In the United States, leading public health officials say they are “very carefully” monitoring if or when fourth doses might be needed. Israel was the first nation to roll out fourth doses, announcing in December that adults 60 and older, medical workers and people with suppressed immune systems were eligible to receive the extra shot if at least four months have passed since their third dose. In the United States, health officials emphasized late last year that fourth doses were not yet needed and said it was too premature to be discussing a potential fourth dose of vaccine for most people. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “is indeed continually looking at the emerging data on the pandemic and variants in the United States and overseas in order to evaluate the potential utility and composition of booster doses,” the FDA’s Alison Hunt said.
● With COVID-19 cases around the U.S. falling, cities and states are responding accordingly by shedding pandemic restrictions like mask mandates. Dr. Anthony Fauci said he understands the desire to return to a sense of normalcy, but he also wants to make sure the country doesn’t ease up too soon. “There’s a lot of… pent-up fatigue on the people’s part about the restrictions,” Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor, said. “We got to be careful because it is a bit risky to do something prematurely, even though when all things turn out you might be correct.”
Fauci said that currently more than 90% of the country still falls in the “high-risk” range against COVID-19, according to CDC standards. However, he acknowledges that could change very quickly as cases continue to drop.
