Kitty Hawk Elementary School will be closed today for deep cleaning after the report of a confirmed COVID-19-positive case there, along with First Flight Elementary, Manteo Elementary, and First Flight Middle schools, which also have COVID-19 cases among their students or staff, according to local media reports.
First Flight Middle School will be closed tomorrow, as well, because the quarantining of staff members there reportedly leaves it without sufficient personnel to conduct classes.
The Beacon is not on the Dare County Schools notification list and is learning this morning from local media reports that in addition to the one COVID-19 case at KHES, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services has reported one case at FFES, three at Manteo Elementary, and two at FFMS. Two hundred people are reportedly in quarantine.
Yesterday The Beacon reported that of the latest 45 COVID-19 cases in Dare County–announced by the DCDHHS in just the past two days–10 are local children age 17 or younger.
After posting a ghastly 21 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services reported a ghastlier 24 new cases today, tying the single-day record high set just eight days ago.
Not to be outdone, N.C. health departments, combined, reported a record high 3,119 COVID-19 cases today, a day after Governor Roy Cooper imposed a modest change in current statewide restrictions on mass gatherings and extended Phase Three of the State’s reopening another three weeks—until 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4.
Yesterday we promised a more detailed breakdown of the new cases in Dare County and more thorough coverage of Dr. Sheila Davies’s Tuesday update. Today we think: What’s the point?
After nearly nine months of living with this pandemic, you are either observing infection-control precautions and doing your part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or you’re not.
You know the “three Ws.” You know that outdoors is better than indoors. And you know to avoid crowds. What more is there to say?
What we will say is that of the 24 new cases today, 21 are Dare County residents, and six of them are age 17 or younger.
Of the 18 Dare County residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and were included in the 21 cases reported yesterday, four were age 17 or younger.
That adds up to 10 children, 10 unemancipated minors whose parents are responsible for their health and well-being. Local media reported yesterday that a Manteo Elementary School student was among this count.
Dr. Davies zeroed in yesterday on common infection-spreading occasions locally, citing “Halloween parties, sleepovers, weddings, [gatherings with] coworkers, and gatherings of friends.”
The Governor and Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, did the same at their briefing yesterday, implicating indoor “social, community, and family gatherings.” (See The Beacon, 11/10/20.)
They worried about upcoming Thanksgiving get-togethers involving family members who do not share a household. They went so far as to make suggestions for how to space out dining tables and guests for holiday meal eating and deciding whom to invite.
“If they don’t live with you,” Dr. Cohen said, “get behind the mask.”
In her update, Dr. Davies said yet again that COVID-19-infected respiratory droplets infect others, and that is how you contract the disease. You breathe in those droplets, and your immune system reacts to the invaders, fighting them off.
She also said that a sizeable 73 percent of all Dare County cases in the past week were acquired by direct contact with an infected person’s droplets. Only 17 percent of the recent cases were potentially caused by community spread.
“Since the virus can be spread before you know you have it,” the DCDHHS Director said, “wearing a mask helps contain your respiratory droplets which in turn minimizes the risk those droplets will infect others.”
Today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that mask wearing protects the wearer from COVID-19 infection, as well as those near him or her. It is not just a safeguard for others.
A mask, the CDC said in updated guidelines, protects the wearer from inhaling infected droplets that are emitted by COVID-19 infected people by coughing, sneezing, talking, singing, and just breathing. They are filters for emission, as well as inhalation. Perhaps that detail will encourage noncompliant people to wear one.
Hospitalizations reported today on the NCDHHS dashboard also surged with new cases, totaling 1,246, a number that recalls daily hospitalization totals in July.
According to the NCDHHS, today’s COVID-19 test-positive rate was 7.9 percent, a figure that suggests rates derived in June and July and is well above the 5 percent rate that Dr. Cohen considers acceptable.
Since March, 4,698 North Carolinians have died from COVID-19, according to reporting by hospitals statewide.
In lowering the indoor mass-gathering limit from 25 people to 10 people, the Governor distinguished North Carolina from other states as not having “experienced the spikes” in COVID-19 that they have. If it does, he may stiffen the restrictions.
For now, he said he has no plans to impose a travel ban and quarantines on people traveling into or out of North Carolina from/to high-risk COVID-19 states.
High-risk states are generally defined as having a seven-day moving average of daily new COVID-19 cases of 10 or more per 100,000 people. So defined, North Carolina is such a hot spot.Virginia and South Carolina are not.
The Governor also declined to lower the capacity limit for indoor restaurant dining, as some states, such as Maryland, have done recently in response to the October-November surge in COVID-19 cases. Indoor dining capacity remains at 50 percent.
We are trying to read up on Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment, bamlanivimab, which the FDA just granted Emergency Use Authorization, and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Both present significant supply, distribution, and administration difficulties.
Bamlanivimab, we have learned, must be delivered by an hour-long intravenous infusion early in the course of a person’s COVID-19 illness. The FDA has authorized its use only in patients with mild or moderate illness who also are at high risk of severe disease or hospitalization.
Some of the factors that convey high risk are being older than 65 years old, having diabetes, being obese according to age-related body-mass indexes, having cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure if you are over 55 years old, and having a suppressed immune system.
The FDA has warned that the drug may cause a worse clinical outcome in a person who requires high-flow oxygen or is already on a ventilator. Bamlanivimab is only helpful in a patient who is diagnosed and treated quickly.
Dr. Mandy Cohen is reportedly being considered for an appointment in President-Elect Biden’s Cabinet.
Governor Roy Cooper announced today a lowering of the indoor “mass gathering” limit in North Carolina from 25 people to 10 people and said that the State “will remain paused in Phase Three,” when the current Executive Order expires Friday, in an afternoon COVID-19 briefing that was most noteworthy for how it ended.
After both the Governor and Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, discussed what the former called the “stubbornly high” and “troubling” COVID-19 metrics in North Carolina that compel their “targeting” of social gatherings, two reporters directly asked Dr. Cohen whether she would consider joining President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration.
Neither got the direct yes-or-no answer requested.
IN OTHER COVID-19 NEWS TODAY . . . Dare County announced at 3 p.m. 21 new COVID-19 cases—18 of them residents of all ages—as the local COVID-19 surge continues. Today’s total is second only to the single-day total of 24 new COVID-19 cases reported in Dare on Nov. 3, last Tuesday.
Dr. Sheila Davies, Director of the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services, reported in her Tuesday update that 80 percent of the 77 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week are symptomatic, and that 400 people are now in quarantine because of direct exposure to a positive case, including nearly 175 students or staff members associated with Dare County schools.
In one of her most detailed updates ever, Dr. Davies directly implicated “Halloween parties, sleepovers, weddings, coworkers, and gatherings of friends” for the “recent spread” in Dare County of COVID-19 cases. We will provide a more thorough update tomorrow about the local COVID-19 scene and will return now to the Governor’s briefing:
The first reporter interested in the Secretary’s political aspirations asked both the Governor and Dr. Cohen, who was appointed to her NCDHHS position in January 2017, whether they would consider positions in Mr. Biden’s “administration.”
Governor Cooper quickly answered “no” for himself and also answered indirectly for Secretary Cohen by singing her praises, and that of her department, and saying, “I want her right here,” while she demurred off-stage.
In response to a second persistent reporter, Dr. Cohen said she was flattered by the attention she is receiving nationally, but she remains “focused here” on getting North Carolinians through the holidays.
“I’m going to keep focused on that,” she said, clearly not ruling out a federal appointment, if she is offered one, that would take effect next year.
Dr. Cohen is reportedly among the President-Elect’s top three candidates for the Cabinet position of Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of HHS.
The others, according to POLITICO and other media outlets, are New Mexico Governor Michelle Lugan Grisham, an attorney, and Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as U.S. Surgeon General from December 2014 to April 2017 and already has been named to the President-Elect’s coronavirus task force.
Before joining Governor Cooper’s Administration, Dr. Cohen, 41, who trained as an internist, served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Obama Administration.
She made clear her views on expanding Medicaid in the State in answering a question about the dearth of mental-health services available to many North Carolinians who lack health insurance. After she advocated for expansion, the Governor said, “Amen!”
Both Governor Cooper and Dr. Cohen sought to “send a strong signal” to people about “social, community, and family gatherings,” according to the Governor. (Dr. Davies does the same today in her plea to Dare County residents to stay “vigilant” and “practice the three Ws.”)
It is in such gatherings—not in restaurants, churches, or other venues where people congregate—“where we’ve seen the clusters,” the Governor said, “the outbreaks” of COVID-19.
Indeed, the Governor’s reduction in the number of people who may gather indoors, from 25 to 10, has no effect on restaurants, churches, schools, municipal governments, and other venues that are either exempted from the “mass gathering” provisions of his current Executive Order or treated separately.
While the Governor said that the current “pause” in Phase Three would remain in effect, he did not say now long after Friday’s deadline the extension would last.
“We have not experienced the spikes that a lot of other states have” in COVID-19 case numbers and deaths, Governor Cooper said, “[but] we’re entering a very dangerous and potentially uncertain time.”
Dr. Cohen echoed the Governor, saying North Carolinians are “on shaky ground as we head into Thanksgiving.” She advised people to limit their travel and their get-togethers and to get a COVID-19 screening test about three or four days ahead of any travel that they must make.
“We need everyone focused on how to keep safe this holiday season,” Governor Cooper said, emphasizing, as always, the “three Ws” of mask-wearing, hand-washing, and waiting six feet (social-distancing). “Hope is on the horizon. This pandemic will not last forever.”
Dr. Cohen also announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given Emergency Use Authorization to a new antibody treatment for COVID-19, and she spoke encouragingly about Pfizer’s vaccine, which has reportedly shown a high level of efficacy in clinical trials.
[UPDATE: ABC reported on-air Tuesday night that the new antibody treatment is only for people age 65 or older or those with underlying medical conditions who have mild or moderate symptoms of COVID-19. It is not for use in patients with severe cases of COVID-19.]
Even though tomorrow is a federal and state holiday, and the Southern Shores Town Hall will be closed, roadside recycling will be collected.
Tomorrow, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day, a federal holiday that is also observed by the State of North Carolina. Post offices, banks, and government offices, including the Southern Shores Town Hall, will be closed, but Bay Disposal will be on its route in the morning, collecting your roadside recycling.
We honor all U.S. military veterans on this day of solemn observance, which was first held in 1919 as Armistice Day, upon the first anniversary of the end of World War I.
World War I formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany took effect. Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
The Beacon thanks all who have served our country in the U.S. armed forces. We appreciate your commitment, your sacrifice, and your patriotism.
COVID-19 UPDATE: Governor Cooper will hold a COVID-19 briefing today at 3 p.m. You may watch it on UNC-TV channel 3 or live-stream it on the UNC-TV website. The Governor is expected to address the 5 p.m. expiration Friday of his latest executive order, which continued the “pause” in Phase Three of the state’s economic reopening.
Two COVID-19 cases at Manteo Middle School were reported yesterday by the Dare County school system, and the Dare County health department announced 11 new COVID-19 cases, as the autumn surge of the coronavirus disease continued locally.
[After this article was posted, the DCDHHS reported seven new COVID-19 cases, six of them residents, and all but two between the ages of 25 and 49.]
The middle school is expected to be open for classes tomorrow, after a deep cleaning today by the Dare County Schools district safety team, according to an email sent yesterday to families of Dare County students by School Superintendent John Farrelly.
Fifty-one people have been identified as direct contacts of the two middle-school cases, who were not identified as students or staff, and have been directed to quarantine, Mr. Farrelly also reported.
Eight of the 11 people whose positive tests for COVID-19 appeared on the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard yesterday are local residents, but none is a child.
Last week, however, the DCDHHS reported six cases of COVID-19 among Dare County children age 17 or younger.
Nine of the 11 new cases reported yesterday are in the 25-to-49 age group, which has been driving the pandemic statewide and nationally. The other two are in the 50-to-64 age group.
Although none of the newly reported cases yesterday or Friday was hospitalized, the DCDHHS dashboard now shows that four local residents—an increase of one since last Thursday’s update–are in the hospital because of COVID-19.
THE GOVERNOR’S NOV. 5 COVID-19 BRIEFING
It was not until a reporter asked Governor Roy Cooper at his Nov. 5 briefing how he intended to “depoliticize” the coronavirus pandemic that the newly reelected head of state said anything about people’s political outlooks. He did not comment on the “politics” of mask-wearing; he just advocated for the practice.
In its reporting Thursday on the Governor’s 30-minute briefing, The Raleigh News & Observer emphasized his response to this question—which was the last one he took—and presented what we believe now, after viewing the meeting videotape, was a skewed view of the Governor’s message. We quoted The N&O as a source on the briefing and feel compelled to set the record straight.
In his response to a question about “depoliticizing” the pandemic now that the election is over, Governor Cooper said that he believes depoliticization will be “a natural occurrence” and more people will begin to look at the pandemic “wholistically,” for example, seeing the pandemic and the repressed economy as connected.
The Governor earlier reiterated his preventive message of wearing a mask and social distancing and said, as he has said on numerous occasions, that “facts” and “scientific data” will guide his decision-making going forward.
“Our numbers remain high,” he said, in reference to daily COVID-19 case reports statewide. “. . . We need to get these numbers down, and we know how” [Observing] the three Ws.”
North Carolina hit a single-day record high of 2,908 COVID-19 cases on Friday, and had more than 4,700 more cases reported over the weekend, and its COVID-19 positive rate has been between 6 and 7 percent for the past week.
In her presentation of North Carolina’s COVID-19 metrics, Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, used her catch phrase, “behind the mask,” to advise how people can protect themselves and stop the spread of the virus.
“If they don’t live with you, get behind the mask,” Dr. Cohen said to discourage people from socializing without protection with people who do not live in their own households.
Advocating that people should “take care of others” by taking the “simple, low-cost precaution” of mask-wearing, she said, “Show that we care about each other by getting behind the mask.”
Dr. Cohen also stressed that a person could be infected by COVID-19 “for many, many days” and not show any symptoms.
Governor Cooper said he understands that life with COVID-19 is “difficult and tiring,” and he relates to “the frustration and fatigue” people must feel, but he encouraged all North Carolinians to continue to be “vigilant.”
The Governor’s current executive order, which has North Carolina “paused” in Phase Three of its reopening, is set to expire this Friday at 5 p.m. It is likely that the pause will be extended for another two or three weeks.
HOW YOU CAN GET TESTED
In response to a question from a reader last week about how you can get tested for COVID-19 in Dare County, we offer the following information, which is available on the DCDHHS website athttps://www.darenc.com/departments/health-human-services/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-copy:
If you have symptoms, the DCDHHS advises you to call your doctor’s office to discuss them. This consultation is being called a triage.
Clinicians can consider testing for COVID-19 any patient who has a fever of 100.4 degrees F. or higher; a cough; chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing; muscle pain; a headache; a sore throat and/or new loss of or alteration of taste or smell.
In assessing patients, clinicians (healthcare providers) observe testing guidelines issued by the NCDHHS and are testing every day in Dare County.
If you are symptomatic and have been evaluated in a phone triage by a healthcare provider as being in need of a test, you may be tested at one of the following testing centers, instead of in your doctor’s office, but you should call ahead:
Beach Medical, Nags Head, call (252) 261-4187
Outer Banks Urgent Care, Kitty Hawk, call (252) 449-7474
Outer Banks Urgent Care Center & Family Medicine, Nags Head, (252) 261-8040
Surf Pediatrics & Medicine (for established patients only), Kill Devil Hills, (252) 449-5200
At least this is how I read the DCDHHS’s information on testing. I have only known individuals who have been tested in their physicians’ offices; all have received their results within two days.
If you are asymptomatic, you have only one option, as far as I can tell, and that is to go to the Outer Banks Testing Center in Nags Head. Call (252) 449-6175.
In last week’s briefing, Dr. Cohen recommended that people get a COVID-19 “screening test” before traveling or gathering with a group for the holidays.
For answers to any questions you may have, call the DCDHHS COVID-19 Call Center, at (252) 475-5008. The center is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Once you are tested, the DCDHHS advises, you are considered a Person Under Investigation and are required to isolate immediately at home and to remain in isolation until your test results are returned as negative or, in the event of a positive result, the following has occurred:
*You have had no fever for at least 72 hours, without using medicine to reduce your fever, AND
*Other symptoms have improved, AND
*At least seven days have passed since your symptoms first appeared.
Roadwork at the U.S. Hwy. 158 and N.C. Hwy. 12 intersection, looking west.
The repaving of U.S. Hwy. 158 is expected to be completed by Nov. 25, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Southern Shores Town Manager Cliff Ogburn reported to the Town Council Wednesday evening in a meeting that lasted only 47 minutes and may have been dampened by an election hangover.
Or perhaps the relentlessly bad news about COVID-19, and the fact that the meeting had no in-person audience, cast a lethargic pall over the proceedings. The Town Council had a decidedly low-key session with little give-and-take among themselves or with staff. We view such as a meeting as a lost opportunity to communicate with, and inform, the public, which is unseen, but still present.
Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey did address the COVID-19 situation locally in a general sense, at the end of the meeting, as she did at a previous meeting, saying “It’s starting to hit close to home” and asking people to be “vigilant.”
Mayor Tom Bennett reinforced Ms. Morey’s message with more specific direction, advising, “Don’t leave your mask at home and don’t leave yourself vulnerable, if you can possibly help it.”
We also commend all of the Town Council members and the Town staff for wearing facial coverings throughout the meeting, including when they were speaking. Only the Town Manager let down a bit in the latter regard, and we are uncertain about how William Norrell, who substituted for Town Attorney Ben Gallop, appeared because his face was blocked by an overhead monitor on the live-stream video we viewed. (Thank you, Mr. Ogburn, for introducing him.)
Not only does wearing masks show mindfulness about how COVID-19 spreads, it models respectful, safe, and conscientious behavior.
[UPDATE SINCE OUR EARLIER POST: North Carolina today broke its previous single-day record of 2,885 COVID-19 cases, with 2,908 newly reported COVID-19 cases, according to the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard. While we were writing this report, the Dare County HHS department updated its dashboard with eight more COVID-19-positive cases, seven of them local residents.]
In considering what to write about the Council’s regular November meeting, we decided that the most useful news to impart was Mr. Ogburn’s announcement of a deadline for the bypass roadwork, which initially had people delayed an hour in getting across the Wright Memorial Bridge.
The Town Manager said that the resurfacing project was actually ahead of schedule, but work at the main intersection at the Welcome Center (pictured above) may lag a bit behind.
You also might be interested to know that the Town issued the highest number of permits this year last month when it issued 66, according to Planning Director and Deputy Town Manager Wes Haskett, who said there is “a lot going on in town right now, development-wise.”
Twenty-nine of the permits were building permits, Mr. Haskett said, and 21 were trade permits.
The Council approved the appointment of Janis Collins, a fairly new Chicahauk homeowner, to the Planning Board as the second alternate, but it did so in what we consider lackluster fashion. Mr. Haskett proposed the appointment without giving any biographical details about Ms. Collins, and the Council did not thank Ms. Collins or welcome her to government service.
Perhaps with an actual audience, they would have been more mindful of the occasion. Every Town Council meeting is an opportunity for the Council members and the staff to speak directly to the public, as well as the creation of a public record for historical purposes.
We wish to thank Ms. Collins, whom we do not know, for volunteering to serve as an alternate on the Planning Board, which plays a very important role in the Town’s development future—if it ever meets again. The five-member Planning Board also serves as the Town’s Board of Adjustment.
Mr. Haskett did not give an update on the CodeWright Town Code rewrite project, which he told us a month ago was back in CodeWright’s court—Town Attorney Ben Gallop having finally critiqued the proposed changes to the zoning chapter of the Code.
BEACH NOURISHMENT MONIES; UNASSIGNED FUNDS
Perhaps the most momentous decision the Council made Wednesday evening was to resolve unanimously that the Town will not pay for any capital expenditures incurred during its 2022 beach-nourishment project “with funds currently on hand.”
This would include monies in the Town’s general fund, which annually receives at least $2 million in revenue from occupancy, sales, and land-transfer taxes, more than $3 million from ad valorem taxes, and another $1 million in assorted other revenues, as well as the multi-million-dollar surplus in the Unassigned Fund Balance.
“The general fund isn’t paying for any portion” of the project, Mr. Ogburn said.
All of the expenses that the Town is currently paying for the as-yet-undefined beach-nourishment project will be “recaptured” in the “borrowing,” he said in explaining Resolution 2020-11-01, which declares the Town’s intent to reimburse itself, up to a maximum of $10 million.
In the “borrowing” presumably means that Southern Shores property owners primarily will be footing the bill with increased taxes.
The resolution that the Council approved appears on its face to be a perfunctory bit of business, undertaken in compliance with N.C. Treasury regulations, but its import and necessity should have been explained to the public by Mr. Ogburn or Town Finance Director Bonnie Swain.
The public also deserves a financial update about the 2022 project. The Town Council unanimously approved in the spring “pursuing” a beach-nourishment project—without choosing one of the options recommended by its coastal engineering consultant–and authorized spending money to hire a financial consultant, but it has not informed the public of the financing plan.
In a summary accompanying the reimbursement resolution, the Town Manager estimated the project costs to be $16,196,500. Is that total in today’s dollars or in yesterday’s dollars, as estimated by Ken Willson of Coastal Protection and Engineering of N.C., formerly known as APTIM? Will tomorrow’s dollars be the same?
How much of that $16 million-plus has Dare County pledged to contribute? How much will Southern Shores property owners be paying in increased taxes, and when will the Town inform them? How will the $1.4 million state grant that the Town just received be used?
Dare County Manager Bobby Outten has said previously that $7 to $7.5 million from the county’s beach nourishment fund, which is financed by occupancy taxes, might be available for the Southern Shores project, but the actual contribution has not been publicly announced. Has the county made a commitment?
All we ever hear at Town Council meetings is how much Mr. Willson is billing the Town for project permitting and design “tasks.” The overall project has yet to be brought into focus.
Also seeming to be important was the Town Council’s unanimous decision Wednesday to amend Town policy on the Unassigned (or Undesignated, or Unreserved) Fund Balance to specify that the minimum balance that must be maintained is now $3 million, an increase of $1.25 million, and to include some broad language about the fund’s purpose being for emergencies.
Councilman Matt Neal astutely pointed out that when the resolution establishing a $1.75 million minimum balance in the fund was approved in 2012, during Hal Denny’s tenure as mayor, it contained the proviso that the Town Council annually review the policy. Needless to say, such review has not occurred.
Thanks to Mr. Neal, the Council approved the changes in the policy with the understanding that it would revisit the policy in a year, thus safeguarding the Town from the “unforeseeable.”
***
The most confusing decision the Council made Wednesday occurred within the first five minutes of the meeting when Mayor Bennett seemed to move twice to amend the consent agenda–by eliminating one of the four items in the agenda–without ever soliciting approval of the amended agenda. Or he did, but then he didn’t.
You can watch the videotape and be the judge as to what the Council members passed by vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4cSvr0KtRY The Mayor misspoke, and no one corrected him.
The consent agenda contained four FY 2020-21 budget amendments, which The Beacon highlighted in a report 11/1/2, for: 1) $43,521 to hire and fund a new police officer for six months; 2) $5800 to redesign and modernize the Town’s website; 3) $250,000 to set up a beach nourishment fund; and 4) $8,000 to pay for cemetery maintenance.
After Mr. Ogburn asked the Council to move the cemetery fund request to new business, the consent agenda was “amended” to just three budget amendments, which the Council may or may not have approved unanimously. Certainly, its intent was to do so, but the Mayor actually pronounced one motion to have been approved twice.
The funds for all of these amendments are being transferred out of the Town’s Unassigned Fund Balance, which, as of June 30, had a shade under $6 million in it.
The Town maintains a separate cemetery fund, which, according to Mr. Ogburn, has $58,000 in it.
The Public Works Dept. had asked that $8,000 from this fund be appropriated for replacing stone in the driveway, grinding some tree stumps, and repairing some markers at the cemetery.
Mr. Ogburn amended this amount to $2,000, deleting from the budget request monies for the driveway resurfacing. The Town Council approved this lesser amount.
On a personal note, and speaking as a frequent visitor to the cemetery, I am more concerned about the grounds being kept free of tree debris and litter than I am about the condition of the driveway. A dirt road enhances the rustic look of the cemetery, which is part of its appeal to me.
***
The Town Council has canceled its Nov. 17 workshop session. When it meets Dec. 1, we hope to hear updates on both the CodeWright project and the traffic study.
From our perspective, there is even now too much cut-through traffic on the Town’s residential streets. Council members and Town staff should inform themselves by observing a week-day morning cut-through rush at the South Dogwood-East Dogwood trails and East Dogwood-Hickory trails intersections. There is an afternoon rush, too, but it is not as heavy.
The character of Southern Shores is being seriously compromised year-round by excessive traffic.
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.”
Because three of the newly reported COVID-19 cases in Dare County this week are linked to Manteo High School, the school will be closed today for students and staff in order for the building to be deep-cleaned and sanitized, according to a report from OBX Today. It is expected to reopen tomorrow.
In the past two days, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services has reported 40 new COVID-19 cases. Five of them are Dare County residents who are age 17 or younger.
After conducting contact tracing, the DCDHHS identified 75 direct contacts of the three cases associated with the high school, all of whom must begin quarantining immediately, OBX Today reported.
In announcing the closure, the Dare County school system did not specify whether the three people who tested positive are students, staff, or both.
UPDATE TO REPORT: The N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services reported today 2,859 new COVID-19 cases across the state, a figure that is the second highest single-day total recorded since March when case reporting began. On Oct. 29, the NCDHHS reported 2,885 new COVID-19 cases statewide. October single-day case totals are dwarfing the single-day totals reported in July, when cases were thought to be at their peak.
There currently are 1,193 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in North Carolina, and 4,548 North Carolinians have died as a result of the disease, according to the NCDHHS dashboard. The daily positive rate, which calculates the percentage of COVI-19-positive tests among the total number of tests administered, has consistently been near or above 6 percent for weeks. Today’s rate was 6.6 percent; yesterday’s rate was 7.4 percent. The NCDHHS’s goal is 5 percent or lower.
The post-Halloween spike in new COVID-19 cases continued today in Dare County, with the report of 16 more people testing positive for the disease, including 13 locals.
Yesterday, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services reported a record single-day high of 24 new COVID-19 cases, a total that topped the previous record of 16 cases set in July.
Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, also cited in her Tuesday update a variety of social settings and activities–frequented and performed without wearing masks or observing social distancing–as responsible for the increase in transmission of the virus via direct contact with an infected person. Among the gatherings she mentioned were funerals, weddings, and get-togethers with family and friends.
Are the increased case numbers of the past two days an aberration or the new norm? Have people decided to eschew compliance with COVID-19 precautions?
The 13 Dare County residents newly diagnosed with COVID-19 include four youths age 17 or younger. The other nine people are one ages 18 to 24; four ages 25 to 49; and four ages 50 and 64.
The three nonresidents include one person ages 25 to 49 and two people ages 50-64.
All are in home isolation.
Of the 57 Dare County residents who have active COVID-19, three remain hospitalized outside of the area.
Statewide election results from early voting and mail-in voting will be delayed tonight by at least 45 minutes, until 8:15 p.m., because of problems at one precinct, according to an afternoon update by The Raleigh News & Observer.
The N.C. State Board of Elections voted, 3-2, to extend the voting deadline today from 7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at one precinct in Sampson County, which is near Fayetteville, because of “technical glitches” experienced there this morning, Will Doran of The N&O reported.
The board’s vote was reportedly along political party lines, with its three Democratic members favoring the extension and its two Republican members opposing it.
There are more than 2,600 polling places statewide.
“Historically,” Mr. Doran explained, “once polls close on election night, state officials immediately release the results of early voting and mail-in voting [which have been previously tallied]. Then over the following few hours, the full Election Day results are reported as they become known.”
The Southern Shores Beacon 