NC records biggest jump in COVID-19 cases while court blocks limits on church services
Coronavirus-related restrictions on religious services in North Carolina are at least temporarily lifted after a federal judge’s ruling Saturday.
The ruling came the same day the state’s number of positive tests took its biggest single-day jump since the state’s first case was reported March 3.
Also Saturday, the first case of coronavirus at a North Carolina juvenile justice center was reported. All youth at Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center will be tested for COVID-19 after an employee at the Cabarrus County facility reported testing positive Friday, according to a news release from the N.C. Department of Public Safety, which oversees state prisons and juvenile facilities.
The department announced the tests Saturday morning, just before the state Department of Health and Human Services reported an increase of 853 cases from Friday’s total.
There were 652 deaths reported Saturday, up from 641 on Friday, and 481 people hospitalized, a decrease of 12 people.
The disease has reached 99 counties. Avery County is the only North Carolina county without a reported case. The county of about 17,500 people is located in the western part of the state.
North Carolina is in Phase One of its reopening plan, which lasts until at least May 22. Gov. Roy Cooper has said he and state officials will use the data gathered during Phase One before deciding to move into the second of three phases. So far, the state has continued to hit most of its desired benchmarks, according to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen.
Cases continue to rise. However, Cohen said that can be attributed to the increase in testing. Overall, 7.5% of all tests have come back positive.
Court order on religious services
Judge James C. Dever III on Saturday temporarily blocked Cooper’s restrictions on church services and other religious gatherings. Dever set a hearing for May 29.
Cooper had required religious services with social distancing to be held “outdoors unless impossible.” Indoor services are limited to 10 people, at least 6 feet apart.
But the judge sided with two Baptist churches, a minister and a Christian revival group who had sued the governor, saying the restrictions violated their constitutional rights.
Cooper’s spokesperson said the governor would not appeal, instead urging faith leaders to follow public health guidance.
First juvenile justice case
The Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center employee hasn’t worked since May 10 after notifying officials at the facility of a potential exposure to coronavirus. The person became symptomatic Wednesday, according to the release.
All of the juvenile living units have been placed on quarantine, a spokesperson said in an email. Earlier in the day, the center’s director, Peter Brown, said two of the units were put on quarantine, according to a release.
“We are monitoring the children on these units twice a day for fever and/or symptoms. Though to date no juveniles have displayed any symptoms associated with COVID-19, we are taking the step of testing all children out of an abundance of caution,” Brown said.
Stonewall Jackson is a 96-bed center that houses males, according to the Department of Public Safety’s website.
The facility at 850 Holshouser Road was the state’s first youth development center and one of four across the state, according to the website.
Youth development centers, the most restrictive and intense option available for juvenile courts, are secure facilities that provide education, treatment and other services for youth who have been adjudicated for violent or serious offenses or have a lengthy delinquency history, the website states. Youth, who must be at least 10 to be committed, typically are sent to such facilities for an indefinite period of at least six months and may continue until their 18th birthday and sometimes longer, the website states.
Social distancing is possible at the development centers, which include a common area used for meals and recreation and individual rooms for each youth, the release states.
As of Saturday, no youth in state juvenile justice centers have tested positive. The centers include detention facilities where youth are sometimes held temporarily after allegedly committing a delinquent act.
Like other state facilities, they have taken various steps to prevent the spread of the virus, including suspending visitation to the facility and home visits for the youth in development centers and deferring requirements that youths visit home before being released. Training around COVID-19 safety precautions and measures have also been provided. The number of calls allowed between youth and family have been increased.
Guidance to clinicians
On Friday, the state updated its guidance to clinicians. It now recommends that more groups, including historically marginalized communities, get tested for COVID-19 if they feel they were infected.
“When we first started this crisis we did not have the testing capacity that we need,” Cohen said in a press conference Friday. “What I can say is we are largely in a very different place. We have the capacity and we want to use it.”
Previously, some counties tested only health care workers and people 65 and older and with underlying health conditions. People with mild symptoms were asked to self-isolate at home.
According to DHHS, 238,586 COVID-19 tests had been completed in North Carolina, an increase of a little more than 7,000 from Friday. The state has been aiming to test between 5,000 and 7,000 people per day.
DHHS updates its case counts once a day, but The News & Observer is tracking cases using both DHHS and county reports. The latest updates show 18,130 reported cases of COVID-19 with 676 deaths.
