NC Reports Nearly 100 New COVID-19 Hospitalizations In A Day

NORTH CAROLINA — Hospitals in North Carolina reported an increase of 93 patients seeking medical care for novel coronavirus since Monday, increasing the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations to 1,179 and marking one of the most dramatic increases recorded in the state.

The increase in hospitalizations comes as the state's number of COVID-19 dead rose by 26 in the span of a day, for a total 1,668 lives lost to the virus. Cases also increased by 1,815 confirmed cases, increasing the number of known cases in the state to 102,861, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data.

"Our hospitalization data is strictly based on what is happening here within the state of North Carolina, but we're definitely keeping our eye on places where we know where there is a lot of cross-border crossing in order to get their care," DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said at a news conference Tuesday.

"The place we're watching the most closely is the Charlotte area," she said. "We've had reports of increased amount of folks coming from South Carolina to North Carolina to get treatment at some of the hospitals in the Charlotte area, as well as get testing."

As of Tuesday, a survey of 94 percent of Charlotte metro hospitals reported 38 empty ICU beds and 831 empty staffed inpatient hospital beds remaining in the region.

Public health officials are looking at increases, along with the pace of increases. One trend that remains encouraging, according to Cohen is that the use of ICU beds in recent weeks and throughout the state remains stable.

As of Tuesday, there were more than 500 ICU beds that remained open in North Carolina, according to DHHS.

"What we're seeing in other states, whether it's Texas, or Arizona, or Florida, is that they are running out of hospital capacity. Their emergency rooms are getting strained," Cohen said. "We don't want to be in that situation.

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North Carolina, like many states, is experiencing growing delays in the turn around times needed to process results as its commercial labs face demand from out of state. Hospital labs are finding shortages in reagent materials needed to conduct the tests.

"We need Federal leadership here to make faster improvements," Cohen said.

One strategy state public health officials are implementing to help alleviate the testing backlog is the adoption of new guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends a symptom-based approach to determining infectiousness. The move, according to state officials, will potential reduce isolation periods from 14 days to 10, which could allow the patient to return to work or normal activities faster.

"Data is now showing that people with mild to moderate COVID-19 really only remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset," Cohen said.

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Someone who has tested positive can now stop self-isolating when they can answer yes to the following questions, Cohen said:

• Has it been at least 10 days since your symptoms started?
• Has it been 24 hours since you last had a fever without using fever reducing medicine?
• Have your symptoms, such as coughing or shortness of breath, improved?

The adaptation of the new guidance will end the previous recommendation that an employee get a negative test result before resuming work duties, which will take pressure off state testing resources, Cohen said.

Globally, nearly 15 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 611,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Tuesday. In the United States, more than 3.8 million people have been infected and more than 141,000 people have died from COVID-19.