Sep. 20—LUMBERTON — After a one-week spike, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Robeson County returned to its recent trend of decline during the last seven days, a week in which no new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the county.
The Robeson County Health Department reported 268 new confirmed virus cases in the county from Sept. 13 through Monday; this is down from the 381 cases reported from Sept. 6-12. There have now been 50,655 total confirmed cases in the county, though these numbers are incomplete due to at-home testing and other unreported cases.
No new virus-related deaths were reported in the county from Sept. 13 through Monday; this is just the second reporting period since mid-July without at least one death, with the county averaging two deaths per week during that span. There have been 565 total virus-related deaths in Robeson County since the start of the pandemic.
These numbers come as President Joe Biden said in a “60 Minutes” interview that the pandemic is “over.”
“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” Biden said.
Biden’s remarks come despite the fact the World Health Organization has not yet declared COVID-19 as an endemic, though its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week “the end is in sight.”
Robeson County remains categorized as “yellow” on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Community Transmission Map, for moderate transmission. Most other area counties are also in the yellow category, though Hoke County is categorized as “orange,” for high transmission, and Columbus County is “green,” for low transmission. There are 26 counties in the orange category statewide.
“Statewide, viral loads in the wastewater systems continue to decline as did the total of positive cases,” county Health Department Director Bill Smith said. “There was a slight increase in hospital visits and emergency room visits, but it really is not of note.”
Smith noted that recent studies suggest an increase in “long COVID” since last summer, when Omicron became the dominant variant of the virus. It is now calculated that one in five people who contracted COVID since then are “still suffering,” Smith said, with the “vast majority” being female and young individuals.
On the monkeypox front, Robeson County remains at just two cases, Smith said. After cases, more broadly, were initially overwhelmingly more common in Black individuals, one-fourth of cases are now white individuals, Smith said. Males account for 98% of cases, with 93% coming in individuals under age 50.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services dashboard lists the population eligible for vaccinations, and those eligible are encouraged by health officials to be vaccinated.
