May 7. The NC Dept. of Health & Human Services is reporting 525 North Carolinians were hospitalized with the coronavirus on Thursday, an increase from 516 yesterday, but still down from the 534 reported hospitalized as of 11 am Tuesday.
Hospital capacity is less of an issue as the COVID-19 pandemic turns into more of a marathon than a sprint. To view current NCDHHS COVID-19 data, click here.
North Carolina is loosening some stay-at-home restrictions. Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that Phase 1 of the reopen plan starts Friday at 5 pm.
The state is averaging about 100 more COVID-19 hospital admissions than it was two weeks ago, but still has available hospital beds.
The NCDHHS reports 729 empty ICU beds out of 3,223 such beds statewide. Regular in-patient beds are also not an issue: 5,672 empty beds out of 19,261 total in North Carolina.
The three-day average of daily hospitalizations is 525.
Critical supplies are mostly in good shape, except for gowns. The NCDHHS says supplies have run out.
At Autumn Care in Cornelius, where there is an outbreak of COVID-19 among staff and patients, staff members are asking for protective gowns.
There are 13,397 active COVID-19 cases statewide, up 5 percent from the 12,758 cases the state reported yesterday. Testing is up as well, with 171,328 tests performed as of this morning, compared to 174,482 as of Wednesday and 151,800 as of Tuesday.
SOURCE: NCDHHS
The death toll in North Carolina is now 507, up 6.2 percent from a total of 477 as of 11 am Wednesday. On Tuesday at the same time the death count was 452. Eighty-six percent of deaths occur in COVID-19 patients over 65 years old.
In Mecklenburg County, NCDHHS is reporting 1,922 COVID-19 cases, up 11 percent from 1,734 cases on May 4.
Wake County, which has roughly the same population as Mecklenburg, has 961 cases, up from 891 on Monday May 4.
Here are data from nearby counties, with today’s COVID-19 count and the count reported Monday May 4, both as reported by NCDHHS:
Cabarrus: 333/314
Catawba: 65/57
Iredell: 137/120
SOURCE: NCDHHS
