Dare County has reported three new COVID-19 cases today, so far, two of them local men and the third a male-non-resident, according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard.

Each man’s age is in a different age category being tracked by the DCDHHS, and all are in home isolation in Dare County.

The youngest of the three is between the ages of 18 and 24; the oldest is between the ages of 50 and 64; and the third is between the ages of 25 and 49.

Forty of the 69 current total COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Dare County, or 58 percent, are under the age of 50. More men (35) than women (34) have now tested positive locally for the virus–which is contrary to the national trend in which more women than men have tested positive.

The status of the missing non-resident COVID-19 case turned up on today’s DCDHHS dashboard. That person is in home isolation in Dare County.

Three non-residents who were transferred to isolation in their home counties have recovered or been cleared symptomatically, according the dashboard.

N.C. DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES DASHBOARD: Today’s statewide COVID-19 metrics are a marked improvement over yesterday’s, which Governor Cooper reported at his press conference.

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported today by NCDHHS declined by 712, as 1,009 new cases were laboratory-confirmed among 19,993 tests that were conducted. That computes to a very acceptable 5 percent positive-test rate, half of yesterday’s rate.

Hospitalizations also declined to 891, down from the record-high 915 hospitalizations reported Tuesday and the second-highest record 906 hospitalizations yesterday.

Nineteen more people in North Carolina died as a result of COVID-19 during the past 24 hours, bringing the death total to 1,290.

We will look closer tomorrow at the Governor’s new executive order, which details the statewide face-covering requirement. The state mandate differs significantly from Dare County’s requirement.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma 6/25/20

 

N.C. Governor Roy Cooper announced today that he is extending Phase Two of the state’s reopening for three weeks—until July 17—and imposing a statewide face-covering requirement that in his description sounded very much like Dare County’s new face-covering mandate, which took effect last Sunday.

Phase Two was set to expire at 5 p.m. Friday, five weeks after it started. Under this “Safer-at-Home” phase, many close-contact businesses, such as restaurants and hair salons, have been permitted to reopen, but at reduced customer capacity and with the observance by employees and customers of infection-control measures.

Gyms, fitness centers, museums, bars, clubs, and other public places that have been shuttered will remain closed, the Governor said in announcing the extension.

In order not to “go backward” in the state’s economic recovery, North Carolina’s chief executive said he was “adding [the] new requirement” of face coverings, which must be worn by anyone age 11 and older in public places, both indoors and outdoors, whenever six-foot social distancing is not possible.

Like Dare County’s face-covering order, the state’s face-covering order provides for exceptions, such as while actively eating or drinking, while giving a speech, or while strenuously exercising.

[The Beacon will report on the  precise language of the Governor’s new executive order after we have had a chance to study it. It was posted online while we were writing this article: https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/EO147-Phase-2-Extension.pdf.]

Unlike Dare County’s mandate, however, the state’s requirement will be legally enforceable only against businesses, not individuals, according to a response by the Governor to a reporter’s question. Dare County provides in its emergency mandate for criminally charging and prosecuting individuals.

Law-enforcement officers may charge a business owner with violating the new state requirement if the owner does not ensure that employees and customers wear face coverings. Recalcitrant customers may be dealt with through a trespassing charge.

North Carolina’s continuously rising COVID-19 metrics—including today’s second-highest single-day totals for new cases and hospitalizations, upon which The Beacon reported earlier today—“are a strong warning, and we must pay attention,” the Governor said in explaining what he called a three-week “pause” in the state’s reopening.

He specifically cited as concerns an increase in community spread of the virus in North Carolina, as well as the daily rise of new COVID-19 cases and a dramatic increase (56 percent) in the number of hospitalizations statewide since Phase Two began.

“Hospital capacity can be overwhelmed in the blink of an eye,” he warned.

The Governor quoted congressional testimony yesterday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, who said that “North Carolina has seen an insidious increase in community spread,” and the virus here is only going to get “more difficult to contain.”

According to The Washington Post, Dr. Fauci stressed that the next few weeks are critical to tamping down what he called a “disturbing surge” of new cases in Southern and Western states, especially Arizona, California, Texas, and Florida.

The infectious-disease expert strongly urged people to avoid crowds and to wear masks.

(The Post reported today that Texas, Florida, and California each reported more than 5,000 new cases, and the United States set a new single-day record of 36,000 new infections, surpassing the previous single-day record of 34,203 set on April 25.)

“Overwhelming evidence shows that wearing face coverings can reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Governor Cooper said in one of many references to medical science and scientific evidence to encourage people to comply with the new mandate.

North Carolina “has been careful in lifting restrictions,” the Governor emphasized, and will continue to be careful. “Data and science,” he said, “will drive” all decision-making by state officials.

TOUGH QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS

The Governor faced some tough questioning from reporters who asked him who is “to blame” and who is “at fault” for the current “insidious” COVID-19 situation in North Carolina.

One reporter asked him if he had any regrets over moving too quickly with the state’s reopening and/or with not ordering masks sooner.

The Governor sidestepped these questions, repeatedly responding that he had made decisions based on the data and scientific evidence available. He expressed no regrets or doubt.

In response to the question of blame, he said, “I think North Carolinians overall have done well. . . . We’ve avoided a surge.”

Pressed further about fault by a reporter who pointed out that New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have announced a joint travel advisory that requires a 14-day quarantine for visitors from nine states, including North Carolina, the Governor said, “All of us need to be more careful” about hand hygiene, social distancing, and face coverings.

The only time that the Governor markedly veered from his message that everyone must wear a face covering, and everyone must observe infection-control protocol was when he said, in frustration, that “Some people are intentionally not wearing masks; some people are intentionally not social distancing.”

But North Carolina is fortunate, he said in follow-up, that “we never were at a really high point” in case numbers—the implication being that the Tar Heel State could look more like Florida if it had been.

Guest speaker Dennis Taylor, president of the North Carolina Nurses’ Assn., was more blunt in attributing much of the state’s case increase to young people, who are not wearing masks because they consider themselves low-risk for the virus.

“Everyone,” he said plaintively, “please heed our warning”: wear a mask and avoid gatherings of large crowds.

“COVID-19,” Mr. Taylor said, “is still here and very active.”

As usual, NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen gave a report on the state’s COVID-19 metrics, none of which is moving in an encouraging direction.

During the Q&A with reporters, Dr. Cohen said that the state is averaging 17,000 tests per day, and that 1,500 full-time staff members are doing contact tracing.

She also said that while the supply of personal protective equipment is “stable,” the NCDHHS is “starting to see supply shortages again” of reagents used in the testing.

Asked by a reporter why Phase Two was extended three weeks and not for a shorter time, Governor Cooper said, “Health experts need three weeks to analyze trends and data . . . to determine if we’re headed in the right direction.”

Next week the Governor will make an announcement about when public schools will open for the next school year.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/24/20

 

Four more people have tested positive locally for COVID-19, three of them residents, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard, while statewide single-day cases surged—just ahead of N.C. Governor Roy Cooper’s 3 p.m. press conference to address the possible expiration or extension of Phase Two on Friday.

The four new COVID-19 cases in Dare County are one male and three females, and their reported ages suggest a family relationship. One of them is 17; one is between the ages of 18 and 24; a third is between 25 and 49; and the fourth is between 50 and 64.

The three residents are in home isolation, along with a resident who until yesterday was reported to be in the hospital, according to the DCDHHS dashboard.

Curiously, although the new COVID-19-positive non-resident has been added to the dashboard’s running total of non-residents who have tested positive locally, the disposition of the case is not indicated. Today’s dashboard reports that 32 non-residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Dare County, but only accounts for the status of 31 of them.

Sixty-six cases of COVID-19 have now been reported in Dare County, with one fatality.

Today’s number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide more than doubled yesterday’s total, as the NCDHHS dashboard reports 1,721 new cases, compared with yesterday’s 848. Today’s case total is only 47 fewer in number than the single-day record total set June 12 at 1,768.

The cases are definitely not moving in the right direction for the Governor to approve the initiation of Phase Three at 5 p.m. Friday when Phase Two of the state’s reopening is scheduled to expire, if it is not extended.

The positive-test rate among all of the completed tests received for today’s metrics nearly doubled yesterday’s rate, as the NCDHHS dashboard reports today’s rate at about 10 percent vis-à-vis 5.1 percent yesterday.

Statewide hospitalizations remain high today at 906, but nine fewer than yesterday’s single-day record high. Twenty more people have died of COVID-19 in North Carolina, for a total of 1,271.

The Beacon will report on Governor Cooper’s press conference as soon as we can after its conclusion.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/24/20

Two more Dare County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in home isolation, according to the final report today on the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

Their cases bring the total new cases reported today to four and the total overall to 62, split evenly between residents and non-residents and males and females.

Yesterday, DCDHHS reported nine more people had tested positive for COVID-19—an alarming single-day record total that is more than double the number of cases of the previous single-day high.  Seven of the nine were non-residents, as were 14 of the last 16 positive cases reported.

The DCDHHS explained the rise in COVID-19 diagnoses among non-residents as the result of vacationers seeking tests at urgent care centers after either experiencing viral symptoms or hearing from people outside of the area that they had direct contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. (See an earlier post by The Beacon today.)

The latest two positive cases are a man and a woman, one of whom is between the ages of 25 and 49, and the other of whom is between the ages of 50 and 64.

UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY: Governor Cooper is expected to announce today during a 3 p.m. briefing how North Carolina’s reopening will progress when Phase Two expires at 5 p.m. Friday. The statewide COVID-19 “metrics” that he and public-health officials are tracking do not support moving into Phase Three, but the Governor will likely find it difficult to delay the reopening by extending Phase Two. He will also address imposing a statewide face covering mandate.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/23/20

 

 

Dare County has reported its 60^th case of COVID-19—another male non-resident between the ages of 18 and 24—and provided an update explaining that the health department is “seeing a number of vacationers go to the area urgent care centers for COVID-19 testing,” where they are being diagnosed.

Of the 60 cases, 29 are Dare County residents, and 31 are non-residents.

According to a DCDHHS bulletin posted at 1 p.m. today, the vacationers being tested in urgent care either “are symptomatic or they have been contacted by someone from back home who informed them they were a direct contact to a positive case.”

As soon as they are tested, according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services, they immediately are classified as a “PUI,” or a “person under investigation” and are ordered to quarantine for up to 14 days.

If their test result comes back positive, DCDHHS notifies them and informs them “of the specific duration of their isolation period,” the bulletin states.

The county “cannot force them to leave Dare County,” the DCDHHS continues. “Some choose to leave and some choose to stay.” It further elaborates:

“We call them every day while they remain in Dare County to check in on them and when they go home, we transfer their case to their home health department to finish out their isolation monitoring.

“The day we call them to give them their positive result we also immediately start work on contact tracing which includes everyone in their house at the present time as well as any other contacts they may have had while in Dare County prior to testing or onset of symptoms. All direct contacts are notified they are to quarantine for 14 days and encouraged to get testing—right away if they have symptoms, or if they are asymptomatic they are asked to wait six days from their day of exposure to be sure they don’t get a false negative.

“Being in the same grocery store or at the same gas station as an individual who tests positive does not make you a direct contact. Being six feet or closer for 10 minutes or greater to an individual who tests positive makes you a direct contact.”

LATEST 16 CASES

Since last Friday’s COVID-19 update by DCDHHS, 16 new positive cases have been diagnosed: two of them are residents, and 14 are non-residents. (The Beacon miscounted earlier, when 15 had been diagnosed, and corrected our count.)

The two residents, according to the update, are not connected. They are believed to have acquired the virus through community spread and are symptomatic and recovering in home isolation.

The DCDHHS describes the 14 non-residents as follows:

*Five are household contacts, of whom two are symptomatic, and three are asymptomatic. They acquired the virus by direct contact with another non-resident household member whose case was reported by the DCDHHS on June 18.

*Two are siblings, both of whom are symptomatic and acquired the virus by a direct contact with a positive case outside of Dare County.

*Three others are symptomatic and acquired the virus through direct contact with people who tested positive outside of Dare County. None of these cases is connected.

*All 10 of the above people have been transferred to their home counties and are in isolation there.

*The remaining four people share a household. Two of them are symptomatic, and two are asymptomatic. DCDHHS believes one of the individuals in the household acquired the virus through community spread or travel and transmitted it to the other three household members. All four are in home isolation in Dare County.

The non-resident cases reported recently suggested to The Beacon parent-child and sibling relationships. This bulletin seems implicitly to confirm that.

The latest case, No. 60, has been transferred to isolation in his home county, according to today’s dashboard, making him one of the 10 described above.

JUNE 30 TESTING APPOINTMENTS, NEXT ANTIBODY TESTING CLINIC

There are no appointments remaining for COVID-19 antibody testing on June 30 at the Dare County Parks & Recreation facility, 602 Mustian St., in Kill Devil Hills. All 357 available appointments have been booked.

Appointments remain for the COVID-19 drive-thru diagnostic testing on the same day, at the same time, and also starting at 10 a.m. To schedule an appointment, you may call (252) 475-5008 on Monday through Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. For more information about testing, please check out www.darenc.com/covidtesting.

The DCDHHS will announce details about a second COVID-19 antibody testing clinic by July 1.

(PLEASE NOTE: This is The Beacon’s last post today about COVID-19 unless DCDHHS reports more positive test results, in which case we will report on them late tonight. Thank you.)

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/23/20

 

(EDITOR’S NOTE: We had hoped to publish the following article before last weekend, but were unable to do so.)

The Southern Shores citizens’ cut-through traffic committee supports the Town Council’s decision to conduct a three no-left-turn-weekend trial this summer, even though it does not believe, as chairperson Tommy Karole said in an email last week to the Council, that this measure is a “long-term viable solution to solve the traffic problem in our town.”

The committee continues to look at other options for traffic control, according to Mr. Karole, who contacted the Council before it voted unanimously at its June 16 workshop meeting to implement a left-turn prohibition at eastbound U.S. Hwy. 158 on to South Dogwood Trail last weekend and this upcoming weekend.

The Town subsequently canceled the June 27-28 no-left-turn weekend. (See The Beacon, 6/21/20.) The next scheduled no-left-turn weekend is July 4-5. The Town Council has discussed holding the other two no-left-turn weekends on July 25-26 and Aug. 1-2.

“We will analyze the data collected during the three-weekend trial and look forward to submitting our findings this fall,” Mr. Karole wrote in an email that was read aloud at the Council’s June 16 meeting. “In the meantime we offer these suggestions to help ensure a successful trial” [which The Beacon has edited for style]:

1. Placing signage on the north and south ends of the Wright Memorial Bridge alerting drivers to the no-left turn at U.S. Hwy. 158 and South Dogwood Trail.
2. Reprogramming of the left-turn arrow light at the entrance to South Dogwood Trail to solid red. [The N.C. Dept. of Transportation informed Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett that it would do this. We do not know if the reprogramming occurred last weekend.]
3. Placing a “No U-Turn” sign at the entrance to Duck Woods Drive.
4. Officially notifying both WAZE and GOOGLE Maps of plans for the no-left-turn weekends.
5. Notifying all Outer Banks rental companies about the no-left-turn weekends, with the strong suggestion that all renters be notified that they will not be permitted to turn left on to South Dogwood Trail. [The Beacon disagrees with this measure, believing there is no reason to draw attention to the cut-through route.]
6. Blanketing key locations, such as South Dogwood Trail, Hillcrest Drive, Wax Myrtle Trail, Sea Oats Trail, Juniper Trail, and Ocean Blvd (at the split next to the cell tower), with northbound traffic counters.
7. Placing unmanned blockades at Porpoise Run and Dolphin Run, with signs indicating “No Left Turn.”
8. Placing southbound vehicle counters on East Dogwood Trail at the Dick White Bridge to collect data on motorists using the Southern Shores residential area as a cut-through route when leaving the beach on Saturdays and Sundays.
9. Enacting a town ordinance covering the above points.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/23/20

Dare County has already reported today its 59^th COVID-19 case, a male non-resident between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the county’s Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

The young man has transferred to isolation in his home county, the dashboard reports.

For the first time since Dare County started keeping track of COVID-19 cases, the number of non-residents who have tested positive locally exceeds the number of residents who have, 30 to 29.

The number of males who have tested positive in Dare County is now just one shy of the number of females who have, 29 to 30.

Today’s dashboard also reports that three more Dare County residents with COVID-19 have recovered or been asymptomatically cleared. That leaves eight active cases among residents, seven of whom are in home isolation, and one of whom remains hospitalized.

The DCDHHS reported three new COVID-19 cases on Sunday and a single-day record high yesterday of nine. In light of this increase in positive tests, The Beacon will wait until the end of the day to update the local case count and case demographics.

We anticipate a DCDHHS bulletin later today about the cases that have been reported since last Friday, in particular, about how the 15 people (so far) contracted the virus.

N.C. COVID-19 UPDATE at 12:30 p.m.: For the second consecutive day, the new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide came in at less than 1,000, according to today’s N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard. The single-day positive test rate among all completed tests also improved to an acceptable 5.1 percent.

Unfortunately, the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 statewide hit a single-day record high at 915, and 28 more people died from the virus, making total fatalities 1,251, the NCDHHS dashboard reports.

THE BEACON, 6/23/20

Dare County now reports today nine people testing positive locally for COVID-19, with the latest person being a male non-resident between the ages of 18 and 24, according to an update on the county Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

The young man has transferred to isolation in his home county, the dashboard reports.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Dare County now stands at 58, with 29 residents and 29 non-residents having tested positive.

Seven of today’s reported cases are non-residents, and two are residents.

We will wait until midnight before we check the DCDHHS dashboard again for reported cases of the day.

The Beacon, 6/22/20

Dare County has reported that a male resident between the ages of 25 and 49 is the 57^th person to test positive for COVID-19 in Dare, according to an update this afternoon on the county’s Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

That brings today’s single-day record high in confirmed COVID-19 cases locally to eight, with more than six hours left in the day. We will report new cases as they appear on the DCDHHS dashboard.

The latest person to test positive for COVID-19 is in home isolation in Dare County.

The Beacon, 6/22/19

 Seven more people have tested positive for COVID-19 locally, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard—six of them non-residents.

Three of the seven people are 17-year-olds, and the remaining four are between the ages of 50 and 64. Three are male, and four are female.

The one Dare County resident who tested positive is in home isolation. Three of the non-residents are also in isolation in Dare County. The remaining three non-residents have transferred to isolation in their home counties, according to the dashboard.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Dare County is now 56, split evenly between residents and non-residents.

Fifty-four percent of the cases have occurred in people under the age of 50. Twenty-nine percent are of people age 24 or younger.

People age 65 and older account for only 16 percent of the total cases, including the one fatality in the county.

Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, will provide details on the latest 10 cases—three of which were reported yesterday—in her update tomorrow.

See The Beacon’s post from earlier today about the face-covering mandate that took effect in Dare County yesterday morning.

The Beacon, 6/22/20