Feb. 15. The NC Dept. of Health & Human Services at noon reported statewide hospitalizations were down 17 percent in the space of a single week, even as Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, says the next 14 weeks will be the most difficult in the pandemic.

New cases

The median daily volume of new cases over the past seven days (3,833) compared to the median of the previous 31 days (4,930) is down 22 percent, based on North Carolina data collected by Johns Hopkins University. (See our chart.)

There were 2,458 new cases of the coronavirus in today’s NCDHHS report, down from 3,170 new cases yesterday.

We remain in the teeth of this pandemic. January of 2021 was the deadliest month we’ve had… We’re on track to cross 500,000 dead Americans this next month. The new strains emerging create immense challenges, and masking is still the easiest thing to do to save lives.

—President Biden

Cases will likely surge again as contagious coronavirus variants spread across the country, said Osterholm, a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 fell to 1,941 today, down 17 percent from 2,339 exactly one week ago.

Deaths

Statewide there were 10 new deaths, the fewest since Feb. 1, according to NCDHHS>

Testing

The statewide positive test rate is at 7.7 percent. The Mecklenburg positive test rate, meanwhile, is at 8.7 percent.

Vaccinations

NCDHHS reports 1.13 million first doses have been administered; 487,702 second doses.

Mecklenburg

There were 245 new cases of COVID-19 county-wide.

There have been a total of 815 deaths in Mecklenburg County attributable to the coronavirus since the outbreak began just under year ago.

North Mecklenburg

Cornelius: 9 new cases; 2,386 cumulative; 21 deaths total.

Davidson: 9 new cases; 1,339 cumulative; 15 deaths total.

Huntersville: 14 new cases; 4,904 cumulative; 46 deaths total.