Two male 17-year-olds are among the three new COVID-19 cases reported today by the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services. The other case is a man between the ages of 18 and 24.
Two of the three youths are Dare County residents, and the third is a non-resident. All three young men are in home isolation in Dare County.
The total number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 locally is now 136.
Today’s dashboard also shows that five residents who were in home isolation in Dare County have recovered or been symptomatically cleared. There currently are 32 active COVID-19 cases in the county.
This is a view of East Dogwood Trail at the Dick White Bridge on Sat., June 13, 2020. Yesterday’s traffic did not come close to backing up on East Dogwood.
Good afternoon, everyone:
From what we observed and heard from Southern Shores residents, yesterday’s left-turn prohibition produced mixed results, but, generally, it had a positive effect.
Some of you reported traffic backups on the northern end of Sea Oats Trail that started as early as 9 a.m.—for those closest to Duck Road—and did not subside until 5:30 p.m.
Sea Oats Trail resident Ursula Bateman said that as of 1:30 p.m. her street was “wall-to-wall” with traffic, the backup of which she estimated started around 10:30 a.m.
Many drivers, Ms. Bateman said, came up from Sound View Trail, in the belief they could save time by taking that semi-circular road that connects to Sea Oats Trail at both ends. This is a regular occurrence on summer weekends, she said.
Ms. Bateman also reported witnessing her first “bathroom break” on the lawn across the street from her home around 11:30 a.m.
On Hillcrest Drive, however, the traffic backups were sporadic, not continuous. By 5:30-6 p.m. yesterday, Vicky Green, who lives on Hillcrest Drive near the tennis courts, said it was “all clear.”
“Traffic was not bad at all during the day,” Ms. Green observed.
Others saw motorists turning around at the Marketplace, at Duck Woods Drive, and even in the middle of U.S. Hwy. 158 before the “Welcome to Southern Shores” sign in order to double back to South Dogwood Trail and turn right.
Michael Walton, who watched nine vehicles turn around in Duck Woods Drive in an estimated span of 10 minutes, said the first driver in the line “actually sat in the 158 turn lane into Duck Woods so long she either fell asleep or was ‘recalculating.’”
It is a shame she did not recalculate and head east on U.S. 158. Others might have followed.
Still others witnessed motorists traveling to Food Lion and then turning around, which is a predictable detour that cannot be prevented.
Recalling the June 2018 and last month’s no-left-turn weekends, we would say that the U-turn frequency yesterday was much higher than previously experienced.
Perhaps the fact that it was the Fourth of July, and more people were on the road than typically are in June, influenced the increase. No question, there was a steady flow of motorists using the cut-through route yesterday after having turned around to avoid the left-turn prohibition.
We did not hear yesterday from anyone on Wax Myrtle Trail, Juniper Trail/Trinitie Trail, or Duck Road. We hope no news was good news.
Despite the earlier arrivals and the U-turners, we think the volume of cut-through traffic yesterday was less than it would have been without the left-turn prohibition in effect. The traffic-count data will tell us more.
People tend to try to arrive on a Saturday, especially when it is a holiday, early enough so that they can enjoy the evening in the Outer Banks.
Based on the traffic volume alone, the barrels blocking the left-turn lane could have been removed at 6 p.m.
In June 2018, the left-turn prohibition was in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. We are not sure why the Town Council elected to try different hours. It is an issue worth discussing.
Please weigh in with your comments about yesterday’s no-left-turn experience.
Today, we experienced a rush of motorists leaving the beach via Hickory Trail between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., but the arriving traffic has been very slight. It is peaceful on the road. We suspect the traffic flow on U.S. Hwy 158-east is moving well.
If you would like to submit a public comment about the NLT weekend to the Town Council for its Tuesday meeting, you may email Town Clerk Sheila Kane at skane@southernshores-nc.gov. Use the subject line, “Public Comment for July 7 Town Council Meeting” and be sure to include your name and address.
Remember, you will not receive an acknowledgment of your email until Tuesday because Town Hall is closed tomorrow.
You also may appear in person to comment. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center. Seating will be limited by social-distancing restrictions.
Seven more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County, all of them under the age of 50, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard. The local case total is now 133.
Three of the seven new cases are Dare County residents, and four are non-residents. All of them are in isolation in Dare County, the dashboard reports.
Five of the seven cases are between the ages of 18 and 24, and two are between the ages of 25 and 49. Three are men, and four are women.
In other local COVID-19 news, one of the three Dare County residents who were hospitalized out of the area, as of yesterday, has transferred to home isolation, according to the dashboard.
Statewide, the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services reported 1,413 new cases today, out of 19,003 completed tests, for a 7.4 percent positive-test rate. There are now 945 COVID-19-related hospitalizations statewide, six fewer than yesterday. Three more COVID-19-related deaths have occurred in North Carolina, bringing fatalities to 1,395.
Drivers will not be able to turn left from eastbound U.S. Hwy. 158 on to South Dogwood Trail from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and tomorrow.
The left turn on to South Dogwood Trail at U.S. Hwy. 158 will be blocked from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, a prohibition approved June 1 by the Town Council that will be enforced by two Southern Shores police officers on the scene.
By a 4-1 vote at its regular June meeting, the Town Council approved the implementation of two more no-left-turn weekends this summer and scheduled them for July 25-26 and Aug. 1-2, with the advice of Police Chief David Kole. The Council may decide at its meeting Tuesday to change one or both of these weekend dates.
The Town Council meets next Tuesday, July 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center. You may attend the meeting in person or join by Zoom videoconferencing. Seating in the Pitts Center will be limited by social-distancing restrictions.
While the Council seeks to alleviate the crush of northbound cut-through traffic that prevents Southern Shores residents from freely traveling to and from their homes and otherwise seriously inconveniences and endangers them, the Council also seeks to obtain vehicle counts on residential streets and on N.C. Hwy. 12 when the left turn is blocked. The Council will be studying the effects on traffic flow.
Mayor Tom Bennett dissented from the June 1 vote to authorize three no-left-turn weekends this summer, but seems to have been convinced since then to take action by what he called at the Council’s June 16 workshop meeting the “unhealthy situation” posed by cut-through traffic.
(The Mayor is featured in a You Tube video about the cut-through traffic and the no-left-turn weekends that was posted in yesterday’s Town newsletter.)
Mayor Bennett initiated a plan to prohibit drivers from turning left from eastbound 158 on to South Dogwood Trail over the weekends of June 20-21 and June 27-28—which the Town Council unanimously approved—but only the June 20-21 no-left-turn weekend took effect.
The second weekend was canceled, Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey told The Beacon, because the Town did not have police resources to dedicate to the event, and the Town of Kitty Hawk, which has jurisdiction at the U.S. Hwy. 158 intersection, would not sign off on the weekend without police presence being guaranteed. (See The Beacon, 6/21/20.)
The Town Council is scheduled at its Tuesday meeting to vote upon a budget amendment to cover the costs for the three no-left-turn weekends, as well as to consider a resolution prepared by Town Attorney Ben Gallop that gives notice to surrounding jurisdictions and to “mapping and traffic direction application vendors” that the left turn on to South Dogwood Trail will be prohibited during the three weekends.
The Beacon expects both the budget amendment and the resolution to be approved unanimously.
Each no-left-turn weekend is budgeted to cost $6,500: $3,700 for the rental of barrels to place in the left-turn lane on U.S. Hwy. 158, and $2,800 for two police officers to observe the intersection and ensure enforcement.
Tommy Karole, chairperson of the citizens’ committee to study cut-through traffic, has advised the Town Council that the Global Positioning System (GPS) and WAZE, a GPS navigation app that gives live traffic alerts about congestion, will not send drivers on to streets that municipalities have closed by ordinance.
A resolution does not have the effect of law, which a town ordinance is. We will be interested to learn Tuesday from Mr. Gallop or new Town Manager Cliff Ogburn whether either or both has had contact with GPS and WAZE about their recognition and enforcement of a resolution.
It certainly cannot hurt to have the Town give notice of its intentions to block the no-left turn on three weekends, starting today.
As usual, we welcome your observations and comments concerning traffic on your street, wherever you live in Southern Shores. Please feel free to contribute comments on the Beacon blog or on the Beacon’s Facebook page. Thank you.
As we write this (between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.), we hear and see a heavy flow of traffic traveling on Hickory Trail in both directions. This has become commonplace with weekly vacation home renters being asked to vacate at 9 a.m.
TOWN COUNCIL TO SPEND MONEY ON TUESDAY
Tuesday’s Council meeting is top-heavy with the consideration of FY 2020-21 budget amendments, the most expensive of which is $437,676 to be appropriated for payment of the engineering, design, and permitting phase in the Town’s 2022 beach nourishment project.
According to the amendment, $250,000 of this appropriation will eventually be paid by Dare County, which offers this amount to municipalities for studies related to beach nourishment.
The Town of Southern Shores paid for its own beach-profile and beach-management studies, without seeking funding from Dare County, but, according to former Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett, the County will give it $250,000 for the engineering-design phase of its nourishment project.
The Town’s contractor is Coastal Protection Engineering of North Carolina, formerly known as APTIM, and the project manager is CPE-NC’s president, Ken Willson, who has managed all of Southern Shores’ short-term beach studies and recommended that the Town conduct nourishment to protect the shoreline from future potential catastrophic storm damage.
Other budget amendments before the Council Tuesday are reappropriations of monies approved in FY 2019-20, including:
$10,000 for the installation of a fence at the new Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Dept. station, which is still not finished. This fence is for the protection of adjacent private landowners.
$8,265 for painting the Southern Shores Police Department building.
$15,200 for the construction of crosswalks at the intersection of East Dogwood Trail and Hickory Trail and at East Dogwood Trail and Woodland Drive.
The Town Council also plans to resume its discussion about the repaving/reconstruction of Dewberry Lane, which is a short road off of Bayberry Trail on which three houses front. The Town has already spent $10,302.50 on this road project: $1,600 for surveying, $3,715 for “testing,” and $4987.50 for engineering, according to a summary of costs that appears on page 28 of the meeting packet.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the Town Council to retreat on capital improvement expenses in FY 2020-21, the Town received two bids on the Dewberry Lane project, the lowest of which came from RPC Contracting, Inc. RPC has informed the Town that it will honor its price of $82,250, if the Council decides to move forward.
The Council appropriated $198,759 for infrastructure projects in its FY 2020-21 budget.
Spending more than $92,000 on redoing Dewberry Lane, a quaint side street that only gets traffic coming and going to three residences, seems excessive to us. But the Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning Committee assigned Dewberry Lane a priority status, and the Town put the road reconstruction project out for bid.
Dewberry Lane will become a cul de sac with curbing like other formerly quaint side streets in Southern Shores, such as nearby Mistletoe Lane, have become.
As usual, there will be two public-comment periods during the Town Council’s Tuesday meeting.
Town Hall will be closed Monday for the Fourth of July holiday.
Happy Fourth of July, everyone.
Please avoid crowds and wear your mask! We will not be able to stop the spread of COVID-19 locally if people do not observe basic infection-control measures and conform their behavior to simple public-health recommendations.
Plus, we are not crazy about publishing COVID-19 case updates. They take us away from reporting on Southern Shores business.
Five more people tested positive for COVID-19 locally, all of them under age 50, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.
In her case update today, DCDHHS Director Dr. Sheila Davies reports that since her last update Tuesday 29 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County, 23 of whom acquired it by direct contact.
In news statewide today, confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 2,000 for the first time, with a single-day record of 2,099 cases based on 28,173 completed tests, for a 7.5 percent positive-test rate.
Hospitalizations also hit a single-day record at 951, up 39 since yesterday.
Nearly 1 million tests for COVID-19 have been completed in North Carolina since the pandemic began.
DARE COUNTYTODAY
Of the five new cases reported by the DCDHHS dashboard today, three are residents and two are non-residents. All are in isolation in Dare County.
Two of the five are 17 years old, one is between the ages of 18 and 24, and two are between the ages of 25 and 49. Two are males, and three are females.
The five bring Dare County’s total number of reported COVID-19 cases to 126.
DARE COUNTY SINCE TUESDAY
In her report of the 29 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed since Tuesday, Dr. Davies breaks down the mode of transmission as follows:
Of the 12 Dare County residents:
*Seven are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact. All seven are connected to 14 other cases that were previously reported. Three of these people are symptomatic, and four are asymptomatic.
*Two are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact and are connected to seven other cases previously reported. Both of these people are symptomatic.
*Three are not connected and likely acquired the virus through community spread. All three are symptomatic.
Dr. Davies has previously announced that many of the residents recently diagnosed with COVID-19 acquired it at a large party at which attendees did not social distance or wear face coverings.
Of the 17 non-resident cases:
*Eight are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact with a person whose positive test was reported on June 25. One of them is symptomatic; the others are not.
*Six are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact with the residents who attended the large gathering. Two are symptomatic, and four are not.
*Three are not connected and most likely acquired the virus by community spread outside of Dare County. All three are symptomatic.
RESULTS OF ANTIBODY & DIAGNOSTIC TEST CLINIC
Of the 375 people who were tested for COVID-19 at Dare County’s first antibody and diagnostic testing event on Tuesday in Kill Devil Hills, seven were positive. These seven cases were included in the DCDHHS dashboard report yesterday.
Of the 343 people who underwent antibody testing at the event, eight were positive.
About 30 tests are still pending, according to Dr. Davies’ update today, and four of the COVID-19 diagnostic tests were inconclusive.
The next antibody and diagnostic testing clinic will be held on July 9, starting at 10 a.m., at Fessenden Center in Buxton. All antibody appointments have already been filled, but diagnostic appointments are still available.
Permanent Dare County residents who are at least 10 years old may call (252) 475-5008 to schedule an appointment.
Ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend, Dr. Sheila Davies is speaking out: “I am very concerned about the potential for rampant spread of COVID-19 based on reckless and irresponsible behavior,” she said in a videotaped message posted around 5 p.m. today.
Just as Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, did yesterday at a press briefing, Dr. Davies singled out large gatherings, with people refusing to wear face coverings and to social distance, as Petri dishes for COVID-19.
She firmly asked people to behave better, by observing the simple infection-control measures that we all know by heart, saying that, otherwise, there will be “significant spread in weeks ahead.”
The majority of the cases reported in Dare County in the past 10 days, Dr. Davies said, have been transmitted by “local spread.”
Twenty seven people who tested positive recently for the coronavirus are “directly linked” to one large party, according to Dare’s Director of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, either because they attended this ill-conceived event or because they came in contact later with someone who did.
One of these people, she said, is hospitalized outside of the area.
Dr. Davies also criticized noncompliant “direct contacts” whom the DCDHHS’s tracers have called, saying they have “hung up on” tracers, “spoken to [them] inappropriately,” “refused to cooperate” with them, “refused to provide critical information for contact tracing,” and “indicated they will not comply with quarantine or isolation.”
The health director said she has had no choice but to issue quarantine and isolation orders, which have legal force and can result in a penalty being assessed against the violator.
We say use the legal means available to you, Dr. Davies, to compel compliance with proven infection-control measures. Public-health workers should only have to do battle with diseases, not with the ignorance of people who spread them.
Eight more people have tested positive locally for COVID-19, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard. All eight are between the ages of 18 and 24, an age group that accounts for 36 percent of the 121 COVID-19 case total in Dare County.
Five of the eight people are Dare County residents, of whom one is in the hospital and the others are in home isolation.
All three of the non-residents are isolating in Dare County.
Four of the people are women, and four are men.
Single-day case reports statewide today and during the past two days have been high—today’s count was 1,629, and yesterday’s was 1,843—but the positive-test rate among the tests completed has declined to between 5 and 5.7 percent, which is encouraging.
Both Dare County and North Carolina hit new single-day record highs today in diagnosed COVID-19 cases, with Dare reporting that 16 people tested positive locally for the disease caused by the new coronavirus and the State reporting that 1,843 people did.
Of the 16 new COVID-19 cases reported locally, 12 are non-residents, and 11 are males, according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard. All but three are under the age of 50, with 12 of them being age 24 or younger, and one just 17 years old.
One of the Dare County residents has been hospitalized, the dashboard shows, while the remaining three are in home isolation.
The total number of cases diagnosed in Dare County is now 113. The number of confirmed cases statewide has risen to 66,513, of whom 901 are hospitalized.
During a press briefing held in Raleigh this afternoon, Dr. Mandy Cohen confirmed that adults ages 18 to 49 “are driving the case increase” statewide and that North Carolina is experiencing “wider community spread” of COVID-19.
DCDHHS Director Dr. Sheila Davies has announced the same trends in Dare County.
Dr. Cohen, who is Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, further elaborated that COVID-19 infections in North Carolina are being “driven by exposure locally,” not by travel. She singled out workplaces and large gatherings as the hot spots for transmission.
With the Fourth of July holiday weekend coming up, both Dr. Cohen and Governor Roy Cooper urged people to protect themselves and others by wearing face coverings, social distancing, and washing their hands often—especially if they are going to be in a group setting.
“Mass” gatherings are still prohibited in North Carolina during the current “pause” or extension of Phase Two, which is scheduled to last until at least July 17.
Any event that brings together more than 10 people indoors or more than 25 people outdoors at the same time in a confined space is prohibited. According to the Governor’s Phase Two Executive Order 141, this includes “parades, fairs, and festivals.”
Also today, Governor Cooper postponed for two weeks an announcement of when, and how, the N.C. public schools will reopen for the next school year.
He expressed a strong preference for “getting kids back in the classroom for in-person instruction,” but acknowledged during reporters’ questions that many educators are concerned about their own safety.
AGE BREAKDOWN OF TODAY’S 16 CASES
The age breakdown of the 16 COVID-19 cases reported by the DCDHHS dashboard is as follows:
*One is 17 years old;
*Eleven are between the ages of 18 to 24;
*One is between ages 25 to 49;
*Three are between ages 50 to 64.
People under age 50 now account for 69 percent of the local COVID-19 cases. Only nine percent of the people who have tested positive are age 65 or older.
Eight of the 12 new non-resident cases are isolating in Dare County, and the remaining four have transferred to isolation in their home counties.
The dashboard also reports that four non-residents who had been isolating out of the area have recovered or been symptomatically cleared.
NEXT TESTING EVENT IS JULY 9 IN BUXTON
Dare County will partner with Mako Medical Laboratories of Raleigh to hold its next diagnostic and antibody COVID-19 testing event July 9, starting at 10 a.m., at the Fessenden Center in Buxton.
Only asymptomatic permanent residents of Dare County who are age 10 or older and have an appointment will be tested.
You may register for either a diagnostic test, which can be done on a drive-through basis, or an antibody test, which requires a blood sample to be drawn inside the center, or both. Call (252) 475-5008, Monday through Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., to book your appointment.
It is always a bit risky to attribute credit to someone without confirming that the credit is indeed due, but that is what The Beacon did yesterday in attributing to new Town Manager Cliff Ogburn what we called a “cleanup” in the Town’s website homepage.
See The Beacon, 6/29/20.
We basically wanted to acknowledge Mr. Ogburn’s arrival and welcome him, and we did not want to call him. We would like him to have a month on the job before we ask him for a Q&A. Asking about the website seemed just too trivial.
We also wanted to slip in an explanation as to why we have not provided more coverage of the Town Council’s June 16 workshop session without drawing too much attention to our explanation, which is, essentially, it pains us to report on much of the discourse that occurred.
We are trained to be prepared and to form smart, independent opinions based on our preparation, and if we were in elected public office, we would sacrifice sleep and personal time, and pick up the phone and call second-opinion experts, to ensure that we truly are prepared. We revel in critical thinking.
We also are fairly adept at recognizing non-answers from consultants, who do not wish to answer questions—even when they go on interminably and sound impressive—and we would never fail to follow up a non-response with a more pointed question that pins the non-responsive party down.
But we are not every person, so although we are critical, we are also mindful that we set our sights high, and we do not wish to deliver too many public low blows to those who do not.
We cut a few corners ourselves yesterday in order to write about Mr. Ogburn’s arrival and the beach-nourishment discussion that we did not cover, and to get away from COVID-19 case counts and community spread for a change.
Today, we discover that not much actually has changed on the homepage. The clutter at the top–the banner–is still there, unfortunately. We did not see it yesterday, but that may be because we had hidden it a few days ago. We always hide it. It is a tacky, low-tech format to use on a government website. It also is redundant.
But, much to our delight, we discover that the “Rumor or Fact?” and “Legislation Update” links are history—which is appropriate because all they did was preserve history that no longer has relevance.
So, we say bravo to whoever is making changes to the Town website. Please continue. You have a long way to go before the website is both useful and friendly, but we are optimistic it can be done.
JULY 4-5 IS A NO-LEFT-TURN WEEKEND
The left turn from U.S. Hwy. 158-east on to South Dogwood Trail will definitely be blocked this Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., per the Town Council’s vote on June 1. Southern Shores police will be on the scene to enforce the turn prohibition, and vehicle counters will be operational throughout the town.
The Town has issued no further announcements about this weekend.
The Town Council is expected to vote on a 2020-21 budget amendment next Tuesday to fund three no-left-turn weekends this summer. The suggested dates for the other weekends are July 25-26 and Aug. 1-2.
Barrels will be placed in the left-turn lane on U.S. Hwy. 158, and the left-turn signal there will continuously show a solid red, if the N.C. Dept. of Transportation follows through on its agreement to reprogram the light so that it goes not go through its green-yellow-red cycle.
If anyone cycles up to the intersection on Saturday and can catch a glimpse of the left-turn traffic light, please let The Beacon know whether it is fixed on red. As usual, we will be encouraging residents’ comments on the Facebook page.
Of the 20 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County since last Friday, 15 of them acquired the virus through direct contact with family members or close acquaintances, according to Dr. Sheila Davies’s update today.
The Director of the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services posts two case-transmission updates every week, one on Tuesday, and the other on Friday.
In an unusual move, Dr. Davies reported yesterday that many of the recent cases—18 of whom are locals—acquired the virus through direct contact with household members who attended a large gathering where people did not maintain social distancing or wear face coverings. (See The Beacon, 6/29/20.)
She made it clear in her report that those locals who did not take infection-control measures chose “not to do the right thing.”
She also said that people who are not sick and are seeking COVID-19 diagnostic testing at local urgent care centers “because they are curious” should cease and desist from that practice and instead call the Dare Care COVID-19 call center at (252) 475-5008 for guidance.
People who are sick should contact their healthcare providers before visiting an urgent care center. They should not simply show up.
VIRUS TRANSMISSION
The transmission breakdown of the 18 Dare County resident cases, according to Dr. Davies’s update, is as follows:
*12 of the cases are connected, either through family relationships or close acquaintances. All 12 acquired the virus through direct contact: Four are symptomatic, and eight are asymptomatic. (These would seem to be some “large gathering” folks.)
*Three of the cases are members of another family. They acquired the virus through direct contact with a person whose positive test result was reported by the DCDHHS on June 24. All three of these people are symptomatic.
*One is asymptomatic and acquired the virus through direct contact with a person whose positive test result also was reported by the DCDHHS on June 24.
*The remaining two locals have no connection with each other, and it is assumed both acquired the virus by community spread. One is symptomatic, and the other is asymptomatic.
The two non-resident cases are not connected, according to Dr. Davies’s update. One of them is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact outside of Dare County, and the other is symptomatic and most likely acquired the virus through community spread outside of Dare County.
Dr. Davies reports that contact tracing of the 18 residents has been completed, and DCDHHS staff have identified, notified, and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure all of the contacts.
Quarantine, Dr. Davies explains, “separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.”
DCDHHS calls people who are directed into quarantine to check on their health status and compliance. Noncompliance can result in criminal charges.
Isolation, the health director distinguishes, “separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.” A violation of an isolation order also can result in criminal charges being brought against the noncompliant person.
COVID-19 TESTING
Today, Dare County is hosting, in partnership with Mako Medical Laboratories of Raleigh, a community COVID-19 antibody and diagnostic testing clinic in Kill Devil Hills.
The clinic had 525 appointments reserved, according to Dr. Davies, who says the results of the tests will be provided in next Tuesday’s update.
She also reports that area healthcare providers are now receiving COVID-19 test results from commercial labs an average of four days after they submit the specimens. Previously, the turnaround time was from 48 to 72 hours.
Dr. Davies attributes the delay to an increase in testing.
Between June 22 and June 28, she says, 578 COVID-19 diagnostic tests were performed, of which 44 were positive. That is a positive test rate of 7.6 percent.
More people presented to the hospital emergency department during the week of June 22-28 with COVID-19-like symptoms, according to her report. The monitoring of these people is known as syndromic surveillance.
“We are also seeing an increase in the number of sick individuals presenting to the area urgent care centers,” Dr. Davies says.
No new confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported yet today.
The Southern Shores Beacon 