Cooper, Cohen: Further state actions may be necessary as NC's coronavirus numbers keep climbing

Gov. Roy Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, North Carolina secretary of Health and Human Services, signaled that the state could soon take more actions to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, even as records were set both Saturday and Sunday for new cases and hospitalizations.

The state reported more than 6,000 new cases on Saturday for the first time. On Sunday, an additional 6,438 new cases of the virus were reported.

As of Sunday, 2,191 people were being treated for COVID-19 in North Carolina hospitals.

North Carolina also has a record number of people in intensive care, Cohen said. A total of 5,543 North Carolinians have died from the virus.

"In less than a week, we went from exceeding 5,000 new cases reported in one day to exceeding 6,000," Cohen pointed out Saturday.

With the U.S. facing what could be a catastrophic winter, top government officials warned Americans anew to wear masks, practice social distancing and follow other basic measures.

Cohen said, "I am asking each North Carolinian to take personal responsibility for their actions and slowing the spread of this virus. Always wear a mask when with people you don’t live with, keep your distance from other people and wash your hands often."

The potential for new restrictions worries restaurant owners, such as David Harris.

"[I] hope they don't, [I] don't know much that that's going to help, it's just going to prolong this," Harris said, who owns Sammy's Tap and Grill.

Harris said new restrictions would mean a blow to the industry.

"We're all trying to survive. I have staff here that needs to pay bills, buy groceries," he added.

On Sunday, shoppers in Raleigh expressed a mixture of emotions about North Carolina's record-breaking coronavirus numbers.

"The numbers scare me a lot," said Liz Bedrosian.

Autum Robinson said she didn't feel comfortable being out in public, while on a rare in-person visit to the store wearing mask and gloves.

"My mother-in-law passed away on Friday and we're not even having a funeral right now because it is not safe to gather everyone," said Robinson.

On the other hand, Michelle Pollard said, "I believe some of it is true, but I am not quite sure I believe the entire story.

Pollard said she has her doubts about the spiking coronavirus numbers provided by health officials.

"The majority of people I have been around, thank goodness, have not been sick," she explained.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, countered widespread resistance to mask mandates saying, “Our job is to constantly say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence base.”

The virus is blamed for over 280,000 deaths and more than 14.6 million confirmed infections in the U.S. New cases per day have rocketed to an all-time high of more than 190,000 on average.

Deaths per day have surged to an average of more than 2,160, a level last seen during the dark days in April, when the outbreak was centered around New York. The number of Americans now in the hospital with the coronavirus topped 100,000 for the first time over the past few days.

"Every single day, thousands more people are getting this virus, and we know that means that in a few days, in a week, hundreds of people are going to be coming to the hospital and hundreds of people are going to die," Dr. Shirlee Xie, a hospitalist and associate director of hospital medicine for Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis said on Sunday.

With more and more people being tested for the virus daily, the percent of those tests that come back positive has continued to climb. On Sunday, the state reported 10.4% of tests were positive. The seven-day average is 10.26% positive tests, when the state wants that number to be closer to 5%. Both the number of tests and the percent positive have been rising in the week since Thanksgiving.