North Carolina Coronavirus: 1,629 Cases, 28 Deaths Tuesday

NORTH CAROLINA — On Tuesday, the department announced an additional 1,629 people had tested positive for the new coronavirus, signaling a slight uptick in cases after several days of decline dating back to Friday.

The decrease began in earnest on Friday with 1,954 new cases reported. The number of new cases had fallen to 1,730 on Saturday, and it decreased further to 1,341 on Sunday and 1,313 on Monday.

On Tuesday, 28 more deaths were reported Tuesday, bringing the state's death toll to 2,010, according to health department data.

The health department reports that a total of 1,854,026 people have been tested for the virus. Of them, 128,161 have received a positive test result, meaning 9 percent of all tests have returned a positive result.

Hospitals

With 92 percent of the state's hospitals reporting, health department data shows 1,166 people are hospitalized because of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

According to state data, the number of people hospitalized is also slowly beginning to trend downward. Over 1,200 people were recovering from the virus in hospital beds on Tuesday. Since then, that number has mostly decreased day-over-day.

On Tuesday, 412 people more people were admitted to state hospitals with suspected cases of the coronavirus, and 88 people were admitted with lab confirmation that they did, in fact, have the virus.

Across the state, 339 adults in North Carolina are in hospital ICUs because of COVID-19 on Tuesday, up slightly from the day prior. Further, the number of people using ventilators has also decreased from 910 on Monday to 834 on Tuesday. The state reports 2,446 ventilators remain available, should they be necessary.

Testing

A number of testing locations and events are scheduled to provide coronavirus testing to North Carolina residents in the coming days. A list of sites and events can be found on the state's Community Testing Event website.

The website states some events could have been canceled or rescheduled in the wake of Hurricane Isaias, which left a patch of major flooding and damage to buildings, cars and the environment.

A NCDHHS spokesperson told Patch via email that residents hoping to get tested in the coming days should contact local officials or organizers to confirm testing hours and availability.

"During a hurricane or tropical storm, the safety of staff and of people getting tested is prioritized," the spokesperson said. "In response to [Hurricane] Isaias, individual testing events will determine whether they will cancel, reschedule or change logistics for their community testing event."