Health & Fitness
COVID-19 Hospitalizations Spike To Highest Level Yet In NC
North Carolina reported a new record number of coronavirus hospitalizations Monday, DHHS said.
NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina confirmed 1,546 cases of coronavirus Monday, increasing the state's total to 74,529, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Hospitalizations surged to 982 patients Monday, marking the highest day yet for coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the state.
Hospital capacity remains available throughout North Carolina, according to a DHHS survey of about 81 percent of the state's hospitals. According to DHHS, there were 5,166 staffed inpatient hospital beds and 637 intensive care unit beds that remained empty as of July 6. Ventilator readiness remained stable with 73 percent — or about 2,385 — of the state's supply available for use.
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The state's virus-related death tally rose to 1,398 Monday, two deaths higher than reported Sunday.
As of Monday, North Carolina state and commercial labs had completed more than 1 million tests.
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Late last week, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen reported that North Carolina was running into critical shortages of chemicals needed to conduct coronavirus testing, which is slowing down the turnaround time for test results.
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"Commercial and hospital labs across the country and labs here in North Carolina are again running into shortages of important chemicals call reagents that are needed to process those lab tests," she said. "Federal help and action is needed to address these supply issues right now."
The supply issues are delaying some test results by as much as week, she said.
As of July 4, 9 percent of all tests in North Carolina were positive, DHHS said. The World Health Organization recommends that governments have a percent positive rate of 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days before reopening.
Globally, more than 11.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 535,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Monday. In the United States, nearly 2.9 million people have been infected and more than 130,000 people have died from COVID-19.
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