North Carolina Coronavirus: Nearly Every County Has Positive Case

NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina's number of laboratory-confirmed cases of the new coronavirus increased by 155 and two more deaths were reported from Saturday to Sunday, according to the latest public health data. The latest totals are 11,664 cases and 422 deaths. COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, is present in 99 of 100 counties.

Current hospitalizations decreased from 502 to 475 in the last day, NC DHHS data showed. According to the state agency, a survey of about 78 percent of the state's hospitals shows that 661 of the available 3,018 ventilators in North Carolina are in use as of Sunday. That represents a decrease of 38 from Saturday and is not COVID-19-specific.

In the intensive care units (ICU), 871 beds, or about 27 percent, of 3,223 beds are filled. That's up from 829 ICU beds used Friday.

As of 11 a.m. Sunday, 143,835 people have been tested in the state, an increase of 4,360 from the previous day. Gov. Roy Cooper had indicated a goal of conducting 5,000 to 7,000 daily in the state as a metric for easing coronavirus-related restrictions. Cooper will also look for a downward trend of the percentage of positive tests among all tests performed. North Carolina had two days in mid-April with 17 percent positive tests among total tests. The positive test percentage on May 1 was 7 percent, one of the lower percentages since the crisis began in North Carolina.

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North Carolina's nursing homes have experienced 54 outbreaks, defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases, followed by 23 outbreaks in residential care facilities and 14 in correctional facilities. In all, 1,832 cases and 198 deaths have impacted nursing homes; deaths reported in these facilities account for just below half of the state's deaths tied to COVID-19. There are 1,021 cases and nine deaths tied to correctional facilities, and 371 cases and 36 deaths are reported at residential care facilities, which can include adult care homes, family care homes, multi-unit assisted housing, group homes and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Globally, more than 3.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and over 244,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Sunday morning. In the U.S., more than 1.1 million people have been infected and over 66,000 people have died from COVID-19.

This article originally appeared on the Charlotte Patch