As of this morning (7/31), there were 20,239 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 202 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents. Data from Wednesday, July 29 are presented below.
As of July 29, 2020, there were 19,868 cases of and 201 deaths due to COVID-19 among county residents were reported to Mecklenburg County Public Health (MCPH).
MCPH provides these routine updates about reported cases of COVID-19 to help our community better understand how this pandemic is developing in our county. These results only reflect laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 among county residents. Many individuals infected by COVID-19 have not been tested because they are asymptomatic. As such, these results are very fluid and only represent a fraction of the true burden of COVID-19 in our community.
Daily case counts provided by MCPH may differ from state and federal counts due to delays in reporting to the various entities. MCPH updates case counts after an initial case review and, where possible, a patient interview is conducted, which includes confirming county residency. Cases reported after 5 p.m. are counted in the following day’s case count.
Highlights about the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Mecklenburg County as of July 29, 2020 include:
About 3 in 4 reported cases were adults ages 20 to 59 years old.
About 3 in 10 reported cases are Hispanic – most of whom are younger adults. The high number of reported cases among young Hispanics remains a significant concern. As previously noted, some factors influencing this trend include:
- Targeted testing occurring in neighborhoods with lower access to care, some of which have larger Hispanic populations;
- Higher proportions of Hispanics working in essential jobs that make social distancing difficult;
- Significant household spread among large families; and
- Pre-existing disparities in other social and economic determinants of health, like poverty.
MCPH continues to expand outreach to Hispanic members of our community, including increased dissemination of the outreach toolkit in Spanish for community partners, setting up targeted outreach to Hispanic-owned and -serving businesses, and partnering with local organizations and media outlets to spread key prevention messages.
About 1 in 20 reported cases were hospitalized due to their COVID-19 infection. While everyone is at risk for severe COVID-19 complications, reported cases who were older adults (≥ 60 years) were more likely to be hospitalized compared to younger individuals.
Nearly 3 out of 4 have met CDC criteria to be released from isolation based on MCPH confirming eligibility based on criteria for isolation release or those who are not hospitalized and no longer under monitoring due to 14 or more days passing since testing positive.
During the past week, an average of 197 individuals with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. Overall this represents an increase over the last 14 days. These data are based on daily census counts from acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County reporting to MCPH.
During the past week, an average of 9.6 percent of individuals who were tested were positive for COVID-19. This represents a slight decrease over the last 14 days. These data only include tests conducted by Atrium Health, Novant Health, CVS Health, and Walgreens Pharmacy when available. The percent positive 14-day trend slightly declined with and without the addition of new data from Walgreens Pharmacy. Reporting of negative results to MCPH is not required or covered by communicable disease reporting laws. MCPH will include results from other providers and laboratories as accurate, consistent and timely reporting mechanisms are established.
Two hundred-one deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 3 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 27 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
All deaths, except three, occurred among adults with underlying chronic illnesses.
More than half were non-Hispanic Whites. The disparity in COVID-19 deaths among non-Hispanic Whites is related to differences in race/ethnicity of residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities actively experiencing an outbreak.
More than half of deaths were connected to active outbreaks at long-term care (LTC) facilities.
Based on publicly available mobility tracking data, social distancing slightly increased then slightly decreased in Mecklenburg County over the last 14 days. Overall, this represents a fairly stable trend over the last 14 days.
The latest data, maps and charts on local COVID-19 are available here on MeckNC.gov.
It is important to make sure the information you are getting about COVID-19 is coming directly from reliable sources like MCPH, CDC and NCDHHS. The best resource for information about COVID-19 in Mecklenburg County is the County’s website, MeckNC.gov. Individuals can also call the County’s COVID-19 hotline at 980-314-9400.
For more information, please visit the County’s website, MeckNC.gov, the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus and NCDHHS’ website at www.ncdhhs.gov/coronavirus, which will also include future positive COVID-19 test results in North Carolina.
