The Dare County resident whose death from COVID-19 complications was reported yesterday was a man in his late 70s who tested positive for the virus on July 17 and was immediately hospitalized outside of the area, according to information provided today and previously by the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services.
In her COVID-19 case update today, Dr. Sheila Davies, DCDHHS director, gives the man’s approximate age, the date of his diagnosis, and the fact of his hospitalization, but nothing else about his circumstances. She does not even confirm that the man died yesterday, only that the DCDHHS was “notified” yesterday of his death.
(See The Beacon, 7/30/20, for more details.)
On July 17, the day that the late resident’s positive test result was recorded on the DCDHHS dashboard, Dr. Davies reported in a case update that 22 Dare County residents had been diagnosed with COVID-19 since her last update on July 14.
Of those 22 residents, she said, 18 were symptomatic. Of those 18, nine were known to have acquired the virus by direct contact with an infected individual, and the other nine, who had no connection to each other, acquired the virus by “unclear” means.
Among the nine who were known to have come in contact with an infected person, seven acquired the virus from a family member or a close friend.
This is as close as we can get to understanding how a member of our community lost his life, unless his family chooses to share details in order to inform others.
TODAY’S CASE UPDATE
Since Dr. Davies’s Tuesday update, 12 new COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed locally, 10 residents and two nonresidents.
The two nonresidents are both women between the ages of 25 and 29 whose cases were added today to the dashboard. One is in isolation in Dare County, and the other has transferred to isolation in her home county.
Nine of the new COVID-19 resident cases were reported yesterday on the dashboard: Eight of them appear from the update to have been diagnosed at the testing event held Tuesday in Manteo.
The nine residents are four men and five women who range in age from the “17 and under” age category to the “50 to 64” age category, as follows:
One is age 17 and under;
Two are between the ages of 18 and 24;
Three are between the ages of 25 and 49;
Three are between the ages of 50 and 64.
The tenth Dare County resident diagnosed with COVID-19 is a woman age 65 or older whose case was reported on Wednesday. She was hospitalized, but is now in home isolation, as are the nine people whose diagnoses were reported yesterday.
There currently are no Dare County residents hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the DCDHHS dashboard.
Today’s update reports a total of 347 COVID-19-positive cases in Dare County, 197 of them local residents and 150 nonresidents. About half are male and half are female—173 men to 172 women—and the age breakdown is as follows:
51 are age 17 and under;
82 are between the ages of 18 and 24;
123 are between the ages of 25 and 49;
56 are between the ages of 50 and 64;
35 are age 65 or older.
Dare County currently has 39 active cases; 156 people have recovered.
Among the 194 COVID-19 antibody tests conducted through Tuesday’s clinic, only eight were positive.
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/31/20
The Southern Shores Beacon 