Cumberland County experiences nearly 5,000 COVID-19 cases in last seven days
Cumberland County continues to experience high COVID-19 transmission rates, a health official said.
Jennifer Green, the county's health director, provided a COVID-19 update during Tuesday evening’s Cumberland County Health Board meeting. The meeting was broadcast on the county's Facebook page.
“The entire state is in red, which indicates high transmission,” she said. “In the last seven days, we’ve had nearly 5,000 cases of COVID-19.”
The Health Department uses COVID-19 updates from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
“Our case positivity rate is … right around 39%," she said. "We want that number to be…5% or lower."
The county also has a high case rate number, which is the number out of 100,000 residents who have COVID-19 in a population.
“We want that case rate number to be less than 100, and it’s currently at 1,400,” Green said. “You can see … that our testing numbers have increased dramatically, as has our case positivity rate.”
More: Is it possible to find a rapid COVID-19 test in Fayetteville?
Due to the high number of COVID-19 cases, no rapid COVID-19 take-home-test kits have been available through the Health Department for weeks, Green said.
“At the end of December and in January our numbers shot up and (now) we are in a surge due to omicron,” she said.
The turnaround time for COVID-19 test results through the Health Department that have to be sent to a lab is about 72 hours, Green said, unlike the rapid kits that are taken at home and only take about 15 minutes.
As a way to combat COVID-19, the federal government now provides four free rapid COVID-19 at-home-test kits, which can be shipped directly to residents, she said.
To order four free rapid COVID-19 at-home-test kits, visit usps.com.
As of Wednesday, there were 171 COVID-19 patients at Cape Fear Medical Center. Of those, 16 are in intensive care, 15 are on ventilators and one is in pediatric intensive care, according to Roxana Ross, a hospital spokeswoman.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” Green said during the meeting.
Health and education writer Ariana-Jasmine Castrellon can be reached at acastrellon@gannett.com or 910-486-3561.
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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland County's high COVID transmission rates continues to rise
