RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper and the COVID-19 task force said all counties in North Carolina are under a red alert for high COVID-19 spread across the state.
“Get off social media and get on the phone with your doctor,” Cooper said to those still skeptical about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Cooper has pushed schools to require masks in classrooms in his previous briefings. He said 109 school districts across the state have issued mandatory mask mandates for students and staff.
Schools in the Triad have dealt with hundreds of students and staff in isolation after reopening. All school districts in the Triad now require masks.
Cooper's speech comes hours before President Joe Biden is expected to announce stricter COVID-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers. The president originally allowed federal workers to get tested regularly if they didn't want the vaccine. Biden is expected to release a six-point plan to address the latest surge in cases.
State leaders said the climbing cases and hospitalizations nine months after vaccines rolled out are concerning.
State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said case rates in our state are highest for children 17 and younger.
She said for the week ending September 4th, that group made up almost one-third of the state's new COVID-19 cases, which is the highest since the pandemic began.
A little bit less than half of school-aged children, only the ones 12-17, are eligible right now to get vaccinated and the progress in that age group is slow, at only 35 percent.
Cooper has been looking at federal health recommendations and North Carolina's COVID-19 trends to make decisions for our state. So, let's take a look at the current numbers.
North Carolina is watching COVID-19 trends closely after Labor Day weekend. It's still too early to tell if we're seeing trends go up because of the holiday.
Health officials say symptoms of COVID-19 typically present themselves around day five after contracting the virus. Test results take about two days to come back. Plus, another day or so for the NCDHHS dashboard to update, so next week might reveal more.
Labs reported 6,290 new cases Thursday, but they made up 11.3% of recent COVID-19 tests - more than double the state's goal of 5% or lower.
More than 3,800 North Carolinians are hospitalized with COVID-19. However, hospitals remain stable.
Cone Health reports a similar trend, saying COVID-19 patients are high but stabilizing. The numbers went down the last couple of days.
Earlier this summer, it appeared the state was moving into another hospital surge, similar to the one in January.
The large majority of Cone Health patients are unvaccinated. As of Thursday, 96% of current COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
Ninety-four percent of ICU COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated, and it's the same for COVID-19 patients on ventilators.
Health officials said these numbers tell us vaccines work. If you're vaccinated against COVID-19, you're statistically far less likely to be hospitalized or worse. Physicians also say you're less likely to spread it.
Sixty-five percent of all North Carolinians ages 12 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Christopher Ohl gave an update Thursday morning, giving insight on what the spread of the virus looks like in the Triad.
He talked about cases following the Labor Day Holiday, COVID-19 cases in children, and some ways the virus is spreading in schools.
While hospitalizations are still high, Dr. Ohl said the post-holiday bump in cases hasn't surged too much yet.
The number of unvaccinated people still makes up most hospitalizations. Ohl said a vaccinated person might still be hospitalized with COVID-19, but it's unusual and there's typically an underlying health condition.
Compared to the spring, Ohl said more kids are getting COVID-19.
Dr. Ohl said during his update that only a handful of children under the age of 18 are in the children's hospital with COVID right now. Dr. Ohl said for the most part, many of them have underlying medical conditions.
Both the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Ohl highlighted school sports being one way the virus can spread.
"For the period between July 1 and Sept. 2, 2021, clusters among school sports teams accounted for 45% of all clusters in North Carolina middle and high schools, despite most school sports activities not beginning until August as schools began the fall semester," a press release from the health department said.
Dr. Ohl said there are things schools can do to mitigate the spread like testing, making coaches and kids wear masks at all times unless they're actually playing the sport out on the field or court, and minimizing the social activities around sports, like pasta parties and post-game celebrations.
Ohl said it's also important for people in the bleachers to wear masks, even if the game is outside.