First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills is closed today for deep cleaning after the Dare County school system received a report of a lab-confirmed COVID-19 case among its population. The high school is expected to reopen Monday.
The closure follows the shutdown yesterday of Manteo High School, where three COVID-19 cases among staff and/or students were reported this week by the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services. (See The Beacon, 11/5/20.)
In an email sent last evening to families of Dare County students, Superintendent John Farrelly reportedly said that contact tracing by DCDHHS had resulted in the identification of 30 people associated with the FFHS case, all of whom are now in quarantine.
Contact tracing of the three COVID-19 cases associated with Manteo High School resulted in the quarantining of 75 people.
Single-day COVID-19 case totals have been increasing statewide and in Dare County since October and the onset of cooler weather, as people increasingly congregate indoors for social gatherings without observing basic precautions to thwart transmission of the disease.
After reporting a single-day record high 24 COVID-19-positive cases on Tuesday and 16 more cases on Wednesday, the DCDHHS dashboard reported seven more lab-confirmed cases yesterday, of whom six are locals.
One of the newly diagnosed Dare County residents is age 17 or younger, and a shocking three are age 65 or older. All seven are in home isolation.
The N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services reported a near-record high single-day COVID-19 case total yesterday of 2,859. The record high of 2,885 cases was set on Oct. 29. (See The Beacon, 11/5/20.)
Newly reelected Governor Roy Cooper and NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen held a briefing yesterday afternoon to update the discouraging disease metrics and to reinforce a message of “vigilance,” as the Governor said.
We did not view the briefing in real time and will bring you highlights in our weekend COVID-19 update.
The Governor reportedly called for an end to a “politicized” response to the pandemic, according to The Raleigh News & Observer. He singled out North Carolinians who choose not to wear a face covering “based on a political outlook,” The N&O said.
With the election over, “[W]e don’t have to worry about that [politics],” he reportedly said, “and we can move forward with facts and science.”
The Beacon, 11/6/20
The Southern Shores Beacon 
Can you do an updated story on where and how we can get tested for Covid? In other states it is quite easy but to my knowledge it is still difficult here. Thanks!
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
You can find this information on the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services website. I’ll include it in my next COVID-19 update, which will probably be tomorrow. It is now possible to get tested locally without having to be screened by your physician first and without exhibiting symptoms. Thanks for writing. In the meanwhile, here’s a link: https://www.darenc.com/departments/health-human-services/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-copy.
LikeLike