COVID-19 cases are climbing across North Carolina, with infections trending upward in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Wake, Durham and the Triad area, and Duke University Hospital reporting a 42% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the last three days. Duke University has also confirmed at least 16 positive cases on campus since students returned on August 16.
The uptick comes as North Carolina is among 35 U.S. states experiencing rising COVID-19 infections, according to the Charlotte Observer, which cited data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services after reaching out to the agency this week. Covid-like illness accounted for about 2% of North Carolina ER visits during the week ending September 5, per the state agency, while COVID symptoms specifically made up 1.9% of ER trips statewide. Respiratory-virus hospital admissions stemming from emergency room visits rose from 860 to 887 during that same week.
Who’s Ending Up in the Hospital
Of the 60 statewide hospitalizations tallied for the week ending September 5, patients 65 and older accounted for 29 admissions, by far the largest share, according to NC DHHS figures cited in the same report. Children aged 0 to 4 made up seven of those hospitalizations, while people aged 5 to 17 accounted for three, ages 18 to 24 made up four, ages 25 to 49 made up eight, and ages 50 to 64 accounted for nine. Recent wastewater samples across the state showed a moderate virus-activity level of 4.9%, the report’s outlet noted, a metric increasingly used by local health departments to catch surges before they show up in clinic visits.
North Carolina’s numbers track with a broader national pattern. CDC epidemic modeling released September 9 found COVID-19 infections were growing or likely growing in 35 states, including North Carolina, while declining in eight and holding steady in seven, according to the CDC. Nationally, emergency department visits for COVID-19 were elevated across all age groups for the week ending September 5, though total lab-confirmed hospital admissions stayed low, with a median forecast around 0.62%, per the agency’s respiratory virus data.
How North Carolina Actually Tracks the Virus
Rather than relying on daily individual test counts, North Carolina monitors COVID-19, flu and RSV through NC DETECT, a syndromic surveillance system that publishes combined weekly updates and was established in 2004 by the state’s Division of Public Health alongside emergency medicine researchers at UNC Chapel Hill, according to NC DETECT. Municipalities including Cary and Wake County supplement that data by collecting wastewater samples twice weekly from regional water reclamation facilities in partnership with NCDHHS and the CDC, according to the Town of Cary, a method that can flag community viral presence weeks before symptoms or ER visits show up in hospital data…