Dec. 21. By Dave Yochum. With President Biden set to announce 1,000 military doctors, nurses and other medical personnel will deploy to COVID-overwhelmed hospitals during January and February as needed, the NC Dept. of Health & Human Services reported statewide positivity levels have climbed past 10 percent for the first time since the Delta wave peaked in September.

According to the White House, the new omicron variant is highly transmissible, and the unvaccinated are eight times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to die from COVID.

—At lunchtime, the NCDHHS reported 2,894 new cases of the coronavirus, up slightly from yesterday’s 2,892 gain.

Hospitalizations

The NCDHHS reported 1,682 hospitalizations statewide due to the coronavirus, up from 1,630 yesterday.

Deaths

There were 16 new COVID deaths in North Carolina; one of them in Mecklenburg County.

Positive tests

The positive test rate statewide is 10.3 percent. In Mecklenburg County, where tests have been hovering around 8 percent for two weeks, climbed slightly, from 7.9 percent in yesterday’s report to 8.1 percent today.

Mecklenburg

There were 468 new cases reported county-wide from Monday to today.

North Mecklenburg (change from Monday)

• Cornelius: 10 new cases, 4,324 cumulative total, 32 deaths cumulative total.

• Davidson: 3 new cases, 2,528 cumulative total, 19 deaths cumulative total.

• Huntersville: 19 new cases, 9,575 cumulative total, 74 deaths cumulative total.

Last year at this time

On Dec. 21 2020 there were 4,479 new cases and 2,817 people hospitalized in North Carolina due to the coronavirus.