North Carolina's COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 15,000

NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper urged vaccine hesitant residents to "get off social media and get on the phone with your doctor," as the state continues to reel from the spread of COVID-19.

As of Thursday, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of 15,004 state residents.

"The numbers aren’t good, especially the number of people in the hospital and dying," Cooper said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. "We can’t stress enough – by far, the most people hospitalized by COVID right now are unvaccinated."

"How many more people have to get sick and die because people don’t get this miraculous, God-given, effective and extraordinarily safe vaccine?" Cooper said. "How many more people will have to witness the painful, cruel death of a loved one to finally see that vaccines are the way out of this?"

The number of COVID-19 cases rose by nearly 6,300 new cases Thursday, as 3,815 people were hospitalized for COVID -related illness, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Nearly a third of new cases in the state are for children under 17, marking the highest rate of infection for the group since the pandemic began, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said Thursday.

As of Thursday, 59 percent of the state 12 years old and older are fully vaccinated, however vaccination rates lag in eligible children.

Here's the vaccination progress by age group, according to DHHS:

• 12-17: 35 percent
• 18-24: 40 percent
• 25-49: 49 percent
• 50-64: 64 percent
• 65-74: 82 percent
• 75+: 85 percent

North Carolina public health officials Wednesday renewed the call for children 12 years old and older to get vaccinated as the number of COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools continues to rise around the state.

Public health officials consider a COVID-19 cluster as at least five confirmed cases of coronavirus with plausible epidemiologic linkage.
As of Sept. 7, there were 96 clusters reported in K-12 schools in North Carolina, and 3,357 confirmed cases in K-12 students, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

School sports teams account for nearly half of the COVID-19 clusters reported in middle and high schools, DHHS said Wednesday.

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