Henderson County continues to be classified as low risk for COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC updated the U.S. COVID-19 Community Levels by County Map on Thursday, March 10. Henderson County was also labeled low risk in the previous version. The map is updated every Thursday. More states across the country, including North Carolina, are trending low risk each week.
Transylvania County also continues to be considered low risk by the CDC. Polk County was identified as medium risk in the previous map, and is now low risk. Buncombe County is still labeled medium risk in the CDC’s latest map.
Previous coverage:CDC labels Henderson County as low risk for COVID-19 as case numbers continue to fall
Also:Henderson County hospitals encouraged by COVID trends, lower hospitalization rates
The CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days — to determine the COVID-19 community level.
The three classification levels are low, medium and high.
The CDC’s recommendations for low-risk counties are to stay up to date with vaccines and to get tested if you have COVID symptoms.
Case counts
As of the latest information available Friday afternoon, NCDHHS reports 148 new COVID-19 cases in Henderson County in the last 14 days, down from 267 on Friday, March 4 and 480 on Feb. 25. In Transylvania County, 28 cases have been confirmed in the last two weeks, down from 41, and 25 in Polk County, down from 43.
Henderson County’s cumulative COVID case count Friday with NCDHHS was 24,653 with 287 total reported deaths. The total deaths in Henderson County did not increase for the first time in several weeks.
In Transylvania County, 6,087 cases and 69 deaths, up from 68 last week, have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. For Polk County, the cumulative case total is 3,822 with 53 deaths, up slightly from 52 last week.
Delays in laboratories reporting tests may occur, NCDHHS notes.
For more information from NCDHHS, go to covid19.ncdhhs.gov. Additional information for Henderson County is available at www.hendersoncountync.gov/health/page/covid-19-dashboards-and-data.
