News

Cooper imposes curfew amid rapid rise in Covid trends

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 8, 2020

Citing a rapid increase in North Carolina’s key Covid-19 trends, Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday imposed a curfew that requires people to stay home at night. The order takes effect Friday, Dec. 11, and will be in place until at least Jan. 8. 

“We already have strong safety protocols and capacity limitations in place – including a statewide mask requirement. With this additional action beginning Friday, we hope to get these numbers down,” Cooper said. “Our new modified Stay At Home order aims to limit gatherings and get people home where they are safer, especially during the holidays. It’s also a reminder that we must be vigilant the rest of the day – wearing a face mask when we are with people we don’t live with, keeping a safe distance from others and washing our hands a lot.” 

Besides requiring people to stay home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the order requires restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, personal care businesses and others to close at 10 p.m. Permitted is travel to and from work, to obtain food, medical care, fuel or social services or to take care of a family member.

In the past week, North Carolina’s case count has broken single-day records on three separate days, crossing more than 6,000 cases per day on two of those days. Just a month ago, cases were under 3,000 per day. In recent days, the percent of tests returning positive has increased to more than 10 percent

Cooper was clear that further action would be taken to slow the spread of the virus if trends do not improve. This could require further limiting of restaurant dining, indoor entertainment or shopping and retail capacity restrictions, among other safety protocols. 

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen also provided an update on North Carolina’s Covid-19 County Alert System map. The number of red counties (critical community spread) has more than doubled since Nov. 23, to 48 red counties from 20 previously. There are now 34 orange counties (substantial community spread), as compared to 42 orange counties from the previous report. With today’s report, more than 80 percent of the state’s counties fall into the red or orange tier.

The alert system map shows Transylvania, Buncombe, Polk and Henderson counties forming an island of yellow — the least critical rating — surrounded by red and orange counties.

Cohen also provided an update on North Carolina’s data and trends.

Trajectory in COVID-Like Illness (CLI) Surveillance Over 14 Days

• North Carolina’s syndromic surveillance trend for COVID-like illness is increasing.

Trajectory of Confirmed Cases Over 14 Days

• North Carolina’s trajectory of cases is increasing.

• North Carolina’s trajectory in percent of tests returning positive is increasing.

Trajectory in Hospitalizations Over 14 Days

• North Carolina’s trajectory of hospitalizations is increasing.

The DHHS also reported that:

• Testing capacity is high, surpassing 50,000 tests per day for much of the past week.
• The state is continuing to hire contact tracers to bolster the efforts of local health departments.
• There have been more than 500,000 downloads of the exposure notification app, SlowCOVIDNC.
• North Carolina’s personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies are stable.