All-time high: More than 5,000 people hospitalized with COVID in NC

In the past 24 hours, North Carolina added 150 more hospitalizations, and the data doesn't show any signs that the virus will let up anytime soon. Hospitalizations have been steadily increasing since December. Since Dec. 25, the state has seen a nearly 200% increase in people having to be hospitalized with COVID-19.

Out of the 5,055 people hospitalized with coronavirus, around 800 are in the intensive care unit. Only 14 ICU beds and 173 hospital beds are available across the capital region, or Wake, Johnston, Lee, Franklin and Harnett counties. Around 100 children in the state are hospitalized with the virus.

North Carolina's case positivity rate remains elevated above 33.3% for the eighth day in a row. That means that more than one in three people who get tested for COVID-19 are positive.

In an exclusive interview with WRAL News, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky said that Americans will only be able to resume normal life when hospitals are no longer overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

“We are all tired. Nobody wants to be doing this anymore. I know that everybody is sort of looking to, what does the end game look like, and we are all thinking about that," she said. "Can our hospitals handle the routine medical things that come in — our car accidents, our strokes and our heart attacks — and do they have the personnel and beds to give those people absolutely exceptional care?"

The number of deaths reported among people who died with COVID-19 has also been steadily increasing since January. On Tuesday, North Carolina added 46 new deaths, according to state data.

New data from the CDC said that people who receive a booster shot are protected against hospitalization 90% of the time when it comes to the latest omicron variant. Without a booster shot, vaccines only offer protection against hospitalization 57% of the time.

Around 46% of all North Carolinians who are vaccinated have received a booster shot, according to data from NCDHHS.

Researchers at Duke University are working quickly to learn more about a new subvariant of COVID-19 that could be even more transmissible than omicron.

There’s still a lot unknown about this subvariant, including transmissibility and any changes in vaccine effectiveness.

"Some have speculated that it might be [more transmissible] because it has taken off in Denmark," she said. "The flip side is that we have had it here in the United States since the middle of November and it hasn’t taken off here.”

Walensky said the subvariant makes up only about 0.1% of all cases in the U.S. as of right now.

"This pandemic has sent us some curve balls," she said. "We have seen that even in places where we have BA.2 sequence emerging, we have seen cases that are coming down but that is something we will be prepared for should it be the case.”

State health officials said that this latest subvariant has not been found in North Carolina as of Tuesday.