Omicron Crunch: Davidson County sees a 464% increase in weekly COVID-19 cases since December
Davidson County has seen an alarming increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported on a weekly basis at nearly five times the number of cases confirmed in the same time period in December.
According to data from North Carolina Health and Human Services, the number of new cases in Davidson County and positivity rate reported on a weekly basis has skyrocketed since December.
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As of Wednesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported there have been 2,796 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the past seven days. The last week of December, the health department reported there were 495 new cases during a seven-day reporting period.
This is a 464% increase in the number of new cases confirmed on a weekly basis compared to the number of cases reported during the same period of time in December.
In November, the Davidson County Health Department averaged about 200 new cases in a weekly period, but the recent impact of the Omicron variant has seen a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide.
Throughout the pandemic there have been a total of 38,847 cases of the virus in Davidson County.
The positivity rate has also risen sharply since last month. As of Wednesday, the positivity rate of COVID-19 in Davidson County is at 38.6%. It was at 11.6% on Dec. 1.
Although there has been a recent increased demand in testing, the positivity rate is the percentage of tests that are confirmed positive out of all tests given and is not affected by an increase of the number of tests.
There has also been an increase in the number of deaths and hospitalizations in the county in the past month. According to the NCDHHS, there have been 21 deaths related to COVID-19 in Davidson County since Jan. 1. for a total of 362 since the beginning of the pandemic.
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Davidson County is in the Triad Healthcare Preparedness Coalition with Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Caldwell, Catawba, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Iredell, Randolph, Rockingham, Rowan, Stokes, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties.
On Jan. 26, there were 1,152 people in the THPC hospitalized due to COVID-19. Out of these 193 were ICU patients, which is 16% of all patients hospitalized for the virus. According to the NCDHH hospitalization tracker, there are currently 487 ICU beds in use and only 51 beds left out of all the hospitals in the group. Out of the 493 ventilators available, 330 are currently in use.
As of Monday, 47% of people in Davidson County are fully vaccinated and 61% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. For a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
In North Carolina, 60% of people are fully vaccinated and 83% of people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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The five counties with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated in North Carolina as of Jan. 25 are Orange County (78%), Dare County (76%), Wake County (75%), Durham County (72%) and Brunswick County (68%).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers someone fully vaccinated two weeks after they've been given a single-dose shot (Johnson & Johnson) or a second shot (either Pfizer or Moderna).
General news reporter Sharon Myers can be reached at sharon.myers@the-dispatch.com. Follow her on Twitter @LexDispatchSM.
This article originally appeared on The Dispatch: Davidson County sees five times the number of weekly COVID cases since December
