49 COVID-19 Deaths, 897 Newly Confirmed Cases In North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA — At least 49 people died from coronavirus-related illness in North Carolina since Tuesday, according to state public health officials. The news comes as the state's number of known COVID-19 cases rose to 179,532, an increase of 897 cases in the span of a day, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data.

As of Sept. 9, about 7.1 percent of tests in North Carolina were positive.

Reported hospitalizations rose overnight throughout the state. At least 916 patients were hospitalized for COVID-like symptoms Wednesday, an increase of 89 patients since Tuesday. One factor behind the jump in hospitalizations, according to DHHS, was a reporting error that occurred over the recent holiday weekend.

"From Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services experienced continued technical and submissions issues with hospital systems data, which were exacerbated by the holiday weekend, resulting in incomplete hospitalization data," DHHS said Wednesday.

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A Sept. 9 survey of 86 percent of the state's hospitals reported that there were 5,699 empty staffed inpatient hospital beds and 571 empty staffed intensive care unit beds remaining in the state. Ventilators also remained in supply, according to the survey, with 2,299 available, DHHS said.

As of Wednesday, there were six COVID-19 clusters reported in North Carolina schools and 14 active clusters at child care centers. DHHS defines a cluster as five or more laboratory-confirmed cases that are linked. As of Sept. 9, there were at least 44 positive COVID-19 cases associated with school clusters and at least 278 positive cases associated with child care centers.

Globally, more than 27.6 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 898,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Wednesday afternoon. In the United States, more than 6.3 million people have been infected and nearly 190,000 people have died from COVID-19.

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