Henderson County improves in state's COVID alert system; Hospitalizations down

Henderson County continues to see improvements with COVID-19 metrics.

The county is among the 33 in the state highlighted yellow in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 County Alert System report released this week.

Yellow is considered “significant community spread” and is the lowest in the three-tiered ranking. Orange, which now includes 40 counties, means “substantial community spread,” with the other 27 counties labeled red, the highest of the tiers for “critical community spread.”

Transylvania, Polk and Buncombe counties are also currently classified as yellow.

The latest update shows the fewest red counties since the start of NCDHHS’ COVID-19 County Alert System, which uses a combination of metrics to determine whether a county meets criteria to be in the red or orange tier.

The metrics provide information about the amount of viral spread and hospital impact in the county.

The previous report on Feb. 4 showed 61 red counties, 33 orange and six yellow. Henderson, Transylvania and Polk counties were all red at that time, with Buncombe County classified as orange.

Henderson County’s current 14-day percent positive rate is 6.1%. Buncombe is at 4.8%, Polk at 7.9%, and Transylvania County with 5.1%.

Henderson County’s rate of daily new cases per 100,000 residents for the last 14 days was 345 on Tuesday. That figure was 726 on Feb. 9, near 800 at the beginning of February, and around 850 at the end of January.

Hospitalization data is also improving. As of Tuesday morning, Pardee had six patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

“That number has remained steady for the past week and is significantly lower than our patient census from December and January,” Chief Medical Office Dr. David Ellis said. “While our numbers remain low and vaccinations are underway, it is important that our community remains vigilant and continues to practice the 3-Ws of wearing a face covering, waiting at least 6 feet apart and washing hands.”

On Wednesday, AdventHealth Hendersonville reported only one COVID-19 patient in the hospital. 

"This is a dramatic difference from the post-holiday surge that led to double-digit COVID-19+ patient rates in January," Communications Director Victoria Dunkle said. "Thankfully, we have not seen the anticipated increase in positive patients following the Super Bowl."

North Carolina's current totals 

Statewide numbers continue to decline as well. Hospitalizations were at 1,563 as of Tuesday and 1,514 new cases were reported statewide.

North Carolina’s daily percent positive rate is 6.2%, almost identical to Henderson County's. 

The cumulative case count stands at 846,284, with nearly 10 million tests completed. The number of North Carolinians that have reportedly died from COVID-19 is at 10,965.

As of Tuesday, 8,605 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Henderson County, with 128 deaths reported. Transylvania County has 1,868 cumulative cases and 26 deaths; Polk County 1,334 cases and 26 deaths; and Buncombe County 15,120 cases and 289 deaths.

The positive local trends come during a grim milestone for the nation, as the U.S. reached 500,000 COVID-19 deaths this week.