Fifteen people ranging in age from 17 to 65+ tested positive for COVID-19 today in Dare County, while a single-day record high 2,039 cases were reported in North Carolina, according to the dashboards of the respective departments of Health and Human Services.
Today’s staggering numbers locally and statewide attest to widespread prevalence of the new coronavirus. The 15 new COVID-19 cases reported today in Dare County represent the second highest single-day case total, after the 16 new cases reported on July 1.
It is hardly surprising that the NCDHHS also reported a record-high number of single-day hospitalizations of 1,034, an increase of 40 over yesterday’s total, which had broken the previous record for single-day hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations statewide have doubled in the past two months, according to NCDHHS dashboard records.
Of the 15 new cases in Dare County, 10 are residents and five are nonresidents. All of the residents are in home isolation, according to the DCDHHS dashboard, and it appears all of the nonresidents have transferred to isolation in their home counties.
Because some of the nonresidents who were previously in isolation, both in Dare County and in their home counties, have recovered from COVID-19, we cannot be certain by just looking at the dashboard numbers that all of the new cases are isolated outside of the area.
The 15 new cases—six men and nine women—range in age as follows:
*One is 17 years old
*Two are between ages 18 and 24
*Six are between ages 25 and 49 (the age group that is driving the case increase nationwide)
*Three are between ages 50 and 64
*Three are age 65 or older
The COVID-19 case total in Dare County is now 171.
Today’s 2,039 new cases at the statewide level are 8.1 percent of the 1,121,811 diagnostic tests that reportedly were completed. Twenty more people have died since yesterday in North Carolina because of COVID-19, bringing fatalities to 1,461.
Dare County Health Director Dr. Sheila Davies will give some details tomorrow about the COVID-19 cases that have been diagnosed locally since Tuesday. So far, there have been 21.
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/9/20
The Southern Shores Beacon 