COVID-19 IN MECKLENBURG: 993 cases, 16 deaths

April 15. Another Mecklenburg resident has died from COVID-19, bringing the death count to 16, according to the Mecklenburg County Department of Health. That’s up from a total of 12 reported deaths as of Monday and a total of 15 as of Tuesday. There are a total of 993 cases in Mecklenburg.

State and county data are sometimes different based on when they were posted. Here are data from nearby counties as reported by the NC Dept. of Health & Human Services: Cabarrus, 190 lab-confirmed cases, 3 deaths; Gaston, 83 cases, 3 deaths; Iredell, 71 cases, 2 deaths; Lincoln, 15 cases, 0 deaths; and Rowan, 201 cases, 3 deaths.

Differences by race

There are now 5,123 COVID-19 cases statewide, and 117 deaths. Data will be updated at 11 am today.

According to NCDHHS statistics, 58 percent of COVID-19 deaths are white, while 38 percent are black and 3 percent are Hispanic.

The U.S. Census estimated that the racial distribution of North Carolina’s population was 71.2 percent white, 22.1 percent black and 9.1 percent Hispanic or Latino.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says black Americans were hospitalized at higher rates than whites for COVID-19. Experiences from multiple states indicates that African Americans are dying at disproportional rates from COVID-19.

Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio announced Tuesday afternoon that the Charlotte Convention Center will be the site of a new field hospital.

North Carolina is in a much better situation than New York, where there have been 13,303 COVID-19 deaths statewide. The population of New York is twice the size of North Carolina’s but we have less than 1 percent of the deaths.