County of Mecklenburg issued the following announcement on Oct. 15.
There were 153,780 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 1,232 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.
Data as of October 13 are presented in more detail below. MCPH provides these routine updates about reported cases of COVID-19 to help our community better understand how this pandemic is developing in our county. These results only reflect laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 among county residents. Many individuals infected by COVID-19 have not been tested because they are asymptomatic. As such, these results are very fluid and only represent a fraction of the true burden of COVID-19 in our community.
Daily case counts provided by MCPH may differ from state and federal counts due to delays in reporting to the various entities. MCPH updates case counts after an initial case review and, where possible, a patient interview is conducted, which includes confirming county residency. Cases reported after 5 p.m. are counted in the following day's case count.
Highlights about the 153,534 COVID-19 cases reported in Mecklenburg County as of October 13 include:
- During the past week, an average of 220 laboratory confirmed infections per day were reported compared to the 14-day average of 254 confirmed infections. This represents a decrease over the last 14 days. These data are based on Mecklenburg resident cases reported to MCPH.
- During the past week, an average of 269 individuals with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents a decrease trend over the last 14 days. These data are based on daily census counts from acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County reporting to MCPH.
- During the past week, an average of 8.2 percent of individuals who were tested in Mecklenburg County were positive for COVID-19. This represents a slight decrease trend over the last 14 days. These data only include ELRs for molecular (PCR) tests submitted to NC DHHS for laboratories electronically submitting negative and positive COVID-19 results.
- One thousand-two hundred-twenty-seven deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
- Eighty percent of the deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 37 deaths occurred in adults ages 20 to 39 and 204 deaths were adults ages 40 to 59.
- All deaths, except thirty-six, occurred among adults with underlying chronic illnesses.
- Almost half were non-Hispanic Whites. The disparity in COVID-19 deaths among non-Hispanic Whites is related to differences in race/ethnicity of residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities actively experiencing an outbreak.
- Nearly 30 percent of deaths were connected to active outbreaks at long-term care (LTC) facilities.
- Among deaths not connected to outbreaks at long-term care facilities, nearly 2 in 3 were non-White, with 42 percent being non-Hispanic Black. As previously noted, these disparities are largely driven by higher rates of underlying chronic conditions that increase risk of severe complications due to COVID-19 infection among these communities.
- Prior to this week MCPH has only been able to document breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated residents based on self-reported case interviews. Beginning with this week’s data analysis, MCPH has cross-matched reported case data with the COVID Vaccine Management System data regarding vaccinations, for all data going back to the beginning of 2021. As of October 14, 2021, MCPH has received matched and confirmed reports of 6,989 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated residents (1.1% of fully vaccinated residents).