Sept. 2. Using John Hopkins University’s data, new confirmed COVID-19 cases during the past seven days are running 5.2 percent ahead of the median number of new daily cases between Aug. 2 and Sept. 1.
The state’s median number of new cases over the past month was 1,345; over the past seven days, 1,415.
Before the governor’s announcement of Phase 2.5 yesterday, the NC Dept. of Health & Human Services reported 2,111 new COVID-19 cases statewide. New deaths associated with COVID-19, perhaps the ultimate measure of the pandemic spread, reached 39 statewide in yesterday’s report.
Johns Hopkins at 11 am today reported 184,747 deaths nationwide. India, with a population four times as large as the United States’, has had 66,333 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins data.
Hospitalizations are trending in the right direction: 946 statewide yesterday, down from more than 1,100 on a frequent basis during the last two weeks of July.
In Mecklenburg County, which NCDHHS reported had 213 new cases yesterday, the difference in the seven-day vs monthly median is minus 4.5 percent, or 147 median daily cases over the past week vs. 154 median daily cases over the past month.
Metrics improved
Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of NCDHHS said North Carolina has seen stability in key metrics, including positive tests and hospitalizations.
“It’s important to remember that moving forward doesn’t mean letting up on slowing the spread of the virus. Our progress is fragile and we need to maintain focus on the 3Ws especially as we head into flu season,” she said.
6% claims are ‘false’
Claims that only 6 percent of reported COVID-19 deaths are attributable to COVID are false, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
“The point that the CDC was trying to make was that a certain percentage” of people who died “had nothing else but just COVID,” he said.
“That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of COVID-19. They did. So the numbers you’ve been hearing, the 180,000-plus deaths, are real deaths from COVID-19,” Fauci stated.
“Let there not be any confusion about that,” he said.
In North Carolina, roughly half of all adults have conditions like hypertension and diabetes, Cohen said.
Dr.Mandy Cohen: Roughly half of all adults have conditions like hypertension and diabetes
