Dare County Health and Human Services on Tuesday reported a dozen new coronavirus cases, an uptick after several weeks of declining positives.
“While over the past three weeks we have seen relatively low numbers of new COVID-19 cases, less than 25 each week, it only takes a day like today for things to change quickly,” the agency said in a news release. “Today, we have 12 new cases. The majority of today’s new cases acquired the virus by direct contact. Close contact continues to be the predominant way we are seeing the virus spread. This reaffirms how important it is for each of us to do our part and remain vigilant by following the 3Ws to help reduce the spread COVID-19. ”
The total COVID-19 positive case count in Dare County as of Tuesday was 436. Of those, 21 cases are active among Dare County residents, with 13 of the 21 remaining in Dare County. Of the total cases, 234 are residents and 202 are non-residents. Currently there are two patients, one resident and one non-resident, who are hospitalized out of the county.
Since Friday, there have been 21 new positive cases, nine among residents and 12 non-residents.
Of the nine resident cases since Friday:
- 7 of the 9 cases are college students. Only 2 of those cases are connected. 4 of the 7 are symptomatic and 3 are asymptomatic. All 7 acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals who tested positive outside of Dare County.
- 1 case is symptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus which indicates community spread.
- 1 case is asymptomatic and acquired the virus from a family member whose positive test result was reported on 8/18.
Of the 12 non-resident cases since Friday:
- 1 case is symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County.
- 2 of the cases are not connected, both symptomatic and both acquired the virus from family members who tested positive outside of Dare County.
- 2 of the cases are not connected. One is symptomatic and one is asymptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus which indicates community spread.
- 4 of the cases are connected. All acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County.
- 3 of the cases are not connected. All are symptomatic and all acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals who tested positive outside of Dare County.
Contact tracing has been completed on 16 of the 21 of the cases and direct contacts provided by these individuals have been identified, notified, and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure with the positive case. The health department is working with the other five patients on contact tracing.
Over the past week there were 897 COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed in Dare County by local healthcare providers. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March to 10,238.
The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since testing began in early March decreased again this week for the fifth week in a row, to 4.07%. The percent positive to total tests for the past week alone was 2.34%. Syndromic surveillance of the emergency department and the urgent care centers showed a decrease in the number of individuals presenting with COVID-19 related symptoms. These graphs can be found on the Dare County website at www.darenc.com/covid19
