Coronavirus in NC: Live updates for May 21, 2020: Durham announces it won't open public pools this summer

Ward's hired a professional cleaning company to disinfect the site, and all employees in close contact with the infected worker are now in quarantine, officials said.

PEUC provides up to 13 weeks of additional assistance for people who exhausted their 12 weeks of state unemployment on or after July 6, 2019. It is available for benefit weeks ending Saturdays from April 4 to Dec. 26, 2020.

People must file a separate application with the state Division of Employment Security to receive PEUC benefits. Benefits will be paid retroactively to the first week a person became eligible to receive those benefits

For weeks ending April 4 through July 25, people receiving PEUC will be paid an additional $600 each week in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which doesn't require a separate application.

The state legislature required that the plans address a number of issues, ranging from parent involvement and effective instruction to equitable access and provisions for monitoring student attendance. The state board also added provisions to address the needs of students who are English-language learners, academically and intellectually gifted and those who are homeless, as well as a provision to address local limitations that districts and school confront in executing quality remote instruction, such as the availability of broadband and needed devices.

"The logistical challenges of being able to provide these services safely would severely limit the number of our residents who would be able to access these services," Cynthia Booth, spokeswoman for Durham Parks & Recreation, said in an email. "While this was a difficult decision, we have determined that the challenges ... outweigh the benefit to the few that we would be able to safely serve."

The challenges included hiring and training enough lifeguards in a short time; adding staff for the extra cleaning and sanitizing of pool decks, other surfaces and locker rooms; limiting the number of people in smaller pool facilities; and requiring visitors and staff to maintain social distance and wear masks.

"Concerned citizens often prove the front line in combating fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Their confidential information is invaluable to our investigations," Wood said in a statement.

Unless Congress acts quickly, disparities in home internet access will worsen existing gaps in educational and health outcomes based on geography, economic resources and race, Stein and others said.

“This pandemic has demonstrated that broadband is absolutely essential for people to work, study and keep themselves and their loved ones safe and healthy at home," Stein said in a statement. "Congress must provide the funds necessary to ensure that all people and places can reliably access the internet."

Gov. Roy Cooper's shift to the second stage of a three-part plan to return to normal daily life while keeping coronavirus in check allows restaurants, salons and barbershops to reopen at half capacity, starting Friday evening, but keeps bars, gyms and indoor entertainment venues closed for at least five more weeks.

"People have had enough," Smith said, adding that Cooper's new phase is filled with arbitrary rules with no data to back them up.

Businesses will continue to struggle if they aren't allowed to reopen and regulate themselves to ensure the safety of their customers and employees, she said.

The Memorial Day marches will be family-friendly and focused on veterans, Smith said.

While children generally experience mild symptoms with COVID-19, recently a possible link has been found between COVID-19 and a serious inflammatory disease in some children and teenagers who have current or recent infections

MIS-C is a rare condition, but as COVID-19 cases increase, additional reports of MIS-C could follow, officials said. Symptoms include the following:

MIS-C is not contagious, but children with these symptoms could have COVID-19 or another infection that may be contagious, officials said.

Although DHHS didn't say where the child is from, UNC Health, Duke Health and WakeMed all said Thursday that they haven't treated any MIS-C cases to date.

One worker at the plant who had tested positive has died, Williams said, but she couldn't confirm COVID-19, the illness associated with the virus, as the cause of death. Other workers have recovered from the illness and have returned to work, she said.

The percentage of positive tests remains stable at 7.2 percent, so as testing increases – more than 23,000 were completed in last two days – so will case numbers. The rolling seven-day average of new infections is at an all-time high of 629 per day over the last week.

Mecklenburg County added 125 cases, while Forsyth and Duplin counties each added more than 50.

The rolling average of virus-related deaths is at 14 per day over the last week, which is the lowest level in a month.

"We are working with health officials to determine when it would be safe to have a driver and examiner in the vehicle together," DMV officials said in an email. "We also have to determine what possible health-safety precautions may have to be in place when they do resume. We are optimistic that it may come in one of the upcoming phases as the state is slowly being reopened."

DMV officials said the test is required under state law, so no licenses can be given without a test unless lawmakers change the rules. Also, using a parking lot or closed test course where a driver could be alone in the car and observed by an examiner wouldn't work, they said, as the test measures how well a driver handles being in traffic.

The plan is for classes to resume earlier than originally scheduled. The fall semester would end by Nov. 24, with students leaving for Thanksgiving break and not returning until after New Year's Day.

The airport will implement enhanced cleaning in common areas, plastic shields at check-in and gate counters, add signs to remind people to maintain their distance and, where possible, allow only one-way traffic.

At Chatham Youth Development Center in Siler City and Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center in Concord, all youths tested came back negative for the virus.

At Edgecombe Youth Development Center in Rocky Mount, 19 youths were being tested on Thursday.

"Worship has never been confined to a building," one pastor said.

The speakers emphasized their duty to protect congregants, especially those who have medical frailties or other conditions that predispose them to suffer severe symptoms if infected with the novel coronavirus.

"We are protecting the interests of those in our congregations," one pastor said. "They have trusted us with leading them. We are going to lead them with information."

Another characterized the decision to keep churches closed as an act of love.

"We are here because we love our people, we love each other and we love the City of Durham."

In an email to close advisers late Wednesday night, Mayor Steve Schewel outlined how he expected to keep tighter restrictions in the Bull City, including being slower to allow businesses to reopen and a continued requirement that face coverings be worn in public.

Durham has said the stay-at-home order for both city and county would remain in effect indefinitely, and the governor's executive order allows for stricter restrictions at a local level.

In his message, Schewel said Durham would move toward a "safer at home" order like the one Cooper outlined for the state "in the near future."

An additional 2.2 million people sought aid under a new federal program for self-employed, contract and gig workers, who are now eligible for jobless aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the overall number of applications

Watts recommends storing the clean mask in a new paper bag to prevent it from being touched.

The CDC recommends wearing a cloth mask made from cotton fabric when you are outside and unable to maintain social distancing from others.

The Blood Connection website says: "Please note, a positive COVID-19 Antibody Test does not mean that you are immune from COVID-19 or any other virus. However, it does mean that you may be eligible to donate convalescent plasma and help those who are still recovering from the virus."

House of Raeford will also host a chicken sale at 9 a.m. at Galot Motorsports Park in Dunn.