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State officials say coronavirus hospitalizations are on the rise in Wake County. As the numbers climb, Wake County has not required people to wear face masks in public. Other counties like Orange and Durham currently do.

RALEIGH, N.C. — State officials say coronavirus hospitalizations are on the rise in Wake County. As the numbers climb, Wake County has not required people to wear face masks in public. Other counties like Orange and Durham currently do.

Wake County commissioners said they are following CDC guidelines, which strongly suggest that you wear a mask while out in public. But those same guidelines don't require you to wear a mask. People who spoke with WRAL are split on that decision, too.

UNC-Chapel Hill officials held a meeting Wednesday to discuss possible changes coming to the classroom and campus during the coronavirus pandemic. 

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UNC-Chapel Hill school leaders say they will require face masks on campus

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“Let me just pull her out," said Ari Clayton, who had a mask with her but wasn't wearing it in her car. "I’m in the car. I don’t wear it in the car, but I wear it when I am in public places like this.”

With few exceptions, Orange County will require that people over 12 years old wear masks in stores, restaurants and on public transportation.



Orange County joins Durham in requiring masks to be worn in public

Posing with masks

It's been the great debate of late ... should residents be forced to wear a mask in public.

"I think forced is the wrong word but required or strongly suggested," said Amy McMillian.

The question is rising to the top in Wake County as coronavirus hospitalizations spike.

"I do feel like everyone should be required to wear a mask because we have seen the numbers the past few months," Calvin Brinkley said.

Wake County isn’t ready to make wearing a mask in public a requirement. Commissioner Vickie Adamson explained why during a Zoom interview.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, discusses efforts by bars to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, her order that an Alamance County racetrack close, the World Health Organization's backtracking on asymptomatic spread of the virus and her biggest concern about the pandemic.

Dr Cohen. Thanks for joining us. It's been a busy weekend. A busy already. Beginning of the week for you and your colleagues. Thanks for your time. Great. Great to be here. Thanks, David. I want to begin with your office issuing an abatement order requiring the A speedway to shut down. This appears to be the most drastic action yet. Tell us what this order means and why issue it now? Well, we've known for a very long time that we need to work together to slow the spread of the virus in North Carolina and all of our individual actions and those actions of businesses help us keep that virus level low. And so we do have ongoing restrictions, particularly around mass gathering, um, mass gatherings or something that we know, um has the potential to spread the virus far and wide, unfortunately. And so we have continued restrictions on a speedway has continued to have folks gather in the thousands more between, like, two and 4000 over the last number of weekend. And I'm concerned, um, were continued to be concerned about Ah, hazard that can come with bringing folks together like that with with no face coverings, no social distancing and none of the other protocols there. Many, many businesses who are working incredibly hard to keep their customer safe, their patron save. Um, and you know, flagrant violations of those, uh, those rules and restrictions puts all of us in jeopardy. Not just the people who go to that event, right, cause then they go back to their communities, could be spreading virus without knowing it, and it goes from there. But we have to work together on this. And if folks need to really abide by the by the restrict put in place and we're trying to keep those to an absolute minimum on gua chart trends as we go but like, books really need to be abiding by that, otherwise we will use other tools. You know, Ari, that that's an imminent hazard to the people of you know. And as I read through this, I found it interesting that your office and the governor did not come down on this organization with a hammer. You said present a plan to us. We're not looking to cause you a problem. We're looking to avoid a problem. Exactly. Look, we've worked in close coordination with organization that NASCAR, for example, to run a very important race for them. The Coca Cola 600. I think they did a terrific job putting together a detailed plan executing on that plan. They and they did it without Spectators. And then they kept their drivers and the workers there safe by using face covering, even saw in interviews. They were they were doing that and having social distance. So this is possible. And so I said, she'll work with us, work with us. We know that there is a solution we can find, you know, just 24 hours or so ago. You and the governor both said you were concerned very concerned about what you're seeing in the metrics that trending at this time, and you're encouraging more people to get tested, including those who attended protests such as the governor. Now he was scheduled to be tested today. Was he tested? So I haven't checked in if that's happened today, but we are encouraging everyone to get tested. If you've had an exposure now that may be a protest or another mass gathering because those are happening around our state, and so any mass gathering or protest back should be considered exposure. Also, if you were in settings that we know are higher risk things like even a first restore or a restaurant, Um, we want to make sure folks are getting tested, not just when they have symptoms. You have symptoms, Absolutely. Get a test. But even when you don't have symptoms, we want to make sure folks are getting tested. And I do know the governor is going to be getting a test as well. Because what we all need to take ownership here and make sure we're doing things that we can do to laugh. Protect. You know, thousands of people were protesting there, thousands of people that they're raceway. If there were to be a surgeon. People wanting testing, can the state handle that now? Yes. We've worked very hard in ramping up our capacity to be able to test, and we continue to do them. So we're not done. We know we have additional capacity we need to build. The state is buying some in that capacity on our own. We're working with partners, are health systems are refugees. Are local health departments to continue to build that, but right now, we don't be any Wait, uh, for forgetting testing or to process samples at the lab. So we feel like we have good capacity. Right now, there's over 400 sites on our website that folks can go and check out where they might be able to go get Dr Cohen a couple of weeks ago, used to phrase by saying We are flying the plane and building it at the same time. So I mean, they're things that change daily, and I understand that with that in mind, I'm sure you have seen the back and forth messaging with the World Health Organization regarding asymptomatic spread. After saying this type of spread was rare contracting the CDC this morning, they clarified, saying, It's really unknown. How can you clear up that confusion? Yeah, that was an unfortunate I think, parsing of words that that God, I gotta got out of control and I realized that W h o is trying t o make sure that they're clarifying it. You know what that scientists at W. H. O is trying to explain is that some people will be spreading the virus before they have symptoms, and some people will be spreading the virus and they'll never get. But the issue is we don't know who is spreading virus and non, and will they develop symptoms or not? Issue is, as you can be, spreading virus without knowing. And that's really what is so hard about Cove in 19 and why I think we're seeing so much spread as we move around that people conf feel completely fine and they are spreading it to other people. Now they may ultimately develop symptoms, and I think that's what the W. H. O is saying is this. Folks may go on to develop symptoms, but for the few days, even before they developed symptoms, they feel fine. And then and they're spreading cove in 19 that that's a big problem, that it goes exactly back to why we need to do the three W's. The wearing of face masks protect you if you have 19 from giving it for the world. So face coverings really important. You heard the Governor Riel hammer home that we want to see our leaders across the state really role modeling. Why, wearing the face covering really important waiting six feet are washing hands of the VW You're gonna get new to be core. And we know we want to get back to all the things that that we love. We want to get our kids back to school, doing those individual actions, those wearing of face coverings and waiting six feet apart. Washington That's gonna be the key here. And I want to make sure folks know that a couple more things. Dr Cohen, I thought you gave a very demonstrative answer regarding keeping gym's closed for now because of how, when you're breathing hard, you're working out. Droplets can be spread even at a longer distance. They're putting more people potentially at risk. Yet our in boxes and probably yours too, are filled every day with bar owners or people wanting to go to bars saying, Hold on, This is an area if you have a bar in a restaurant, restaurants are open bar owners telling us they can take the responsibility that they need to as laid out by the state to keep people safe to those bar owners. Explain to them why you believe at this time they should remain closed. Sure, well, we know that any activity that you're doing, where you sit or congregate indoors, in particular for a long period of time, close by two people. That's when the virus friends right? Is exactly why we issued the abatement order to a speedway. Right? They had thousands of people, Children shoulder. That's a So when we move to phase two, we knew we were entering into these higher risk activities. So when we opened restaurants you that that was higher risk, we went to the LAN higher risk. And the question was, how many high risk activities did we want to start doing again as a collective? Before we understood exactly what our trends were right, So we wanted to take a more modest step forward. It already started to see, even just from phase one, our numbers had a little bit up in the trends head in the wrong direction. So now we wanted to make sure that as we move into Phase two, we're taking on these higher risk activities. We wanted the opportunity to see where our numbers, though, as we did that and unfortunately what we're seeing, we're two weeks out, maybe a couple days more from the start of phase, and we're seeing our trend and go in the wrong direction. I was pretty strong yesterday and saying, I am confirmed about that. And so when you think about Faras in particular, right, the the nature of open bars is to be social and be around people on close together. It tend tohave, less structured table service, like a restaurant would have. We've seen a number of published studies about transmission within bars. And look, we all know that when you go to bars and you have some alcohol in your system, following the rules isn't always as, um, Assad possible when, when when there's alcohol involved. You know, look, I don't think it's impossible to get to a place where, where we have the restrictions in place and we can move over to that. I think we just want to see our numbers and make sure art friends you to stay in a place where we we can, for example, focus on getting our schools over the right. It's a matter of prioritization because you can do all things because we have covert 19 with us. It's gonna be with us until we get a vaccine. And so the question is, how do we We live with this virus and I'll say, I know the governor's focused. I am focused on particularly getting our kids back to school. We know when we go back to school there's gonna be more virus right around. So that is really, you know, one of the places we want to focus as we think about our trends in our numbers. Um, And like I said, I'm already seeing the start of trends us that I don't like and make me concerned. And so again, it goes back to what those individual actions we can take to help keep that virus level low and it goes back to the CW's goes back to getting it test. If you've been exposed on and picking up the phone, if someone holds you from local health department to say, Hey, you may have been exposed, Dr. On one last question, you talk about your concern being concerned. Give me some perspective. On a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the worst. Where do you place your concern now of seeing the numbers rise, particularly of the percentage positive of testing? So look, I I definitely I am concerned, Um, and It's an instant. I want us to take early action, right? I don't want to get to attend when I'm really worried. Because what? I worry. If I get to that 10 it might be too late, Right? Because this virus works so quickly. And by too late I mean, if we I was at a 10 of worry, I'd worry we were gonna be overwhelming our health care system so that it wasn't there for folks. Not only who have Kogan 19 but maybe it by a car or have a have a heart it back. So I don't want to ever get to a 10. The issue is we need to raise raise the level of concern early. So we get our arms around it so we never get to those levels on. And so I'm trying to raise sort of an early warning single. Not only do I see our percent positive test go up, our number of hospitalizations go up. That's telling me more people are becoming seriously ill in North Carolina with Cove in 19. And we have to take that into account. Now you have hospital capacity. We have I see capacity, so I'm not. I'm not attempt, uh, it in terms of concern, but I think we need to step up our efforts. We can't get complacent. And we need to think about the important activities we want to get back to, like opening schools in person. And those are the things that I you know, we're trying to put all of those things in the mix as we as we move over here. So I'm just appreciative that everyone hangs with us and help really keep this right of the virus low. Are you losing sleep? Um, I would be lying if I said I wasn't losing sleep. Yes, I I I am not. I have not done a lot of sleeping through this entire episode. Um, right, because I don't want to see how the folks get seriously ill or die from this. If there are things we can do right on the next, the bottom line there are things we can do to slow the spread of the virus. I don't want to see people get, get ill or die, and it can be very serious for folks on. And it's not just our folks who are over 65 What? What we know about North Carolina. Not only are we older, right, we have a lot of folks who come to North Carolina to retire, which is wonderful. We have an older population, but we are sicker. North Carolina is a sicker population. Mean we have more chronic disease than than other states, and we know that that puts our population at a different level risk. So I do lose sleep about what we can be doing to make sure that we are are keeping books as healthy as possible. I mean, that's it's in the job title for making. So I want to make sure we're doing everything we can. And it relies on all of us collectively work. Dr. Mandy Cohen, North Carolina secretary of health and Human Services. We do. I sincerely appreciate your time and insight today. Thank you, Dr Cohen. Thank you. Great to be with you. Stay well,

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“I think the first thing is it is really a hard thing to mandate," Adamson said. "We do have a lot of our private business that are requiring it to come into their establishments. I applaud them for doing that, but in a lot of business you really couldn’t mandate it, like in restaurants.”

The topic hasn't come up in meetings, said Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin.

Covering your face with cloth can become uncomfortable once hot weather sets in. Fortunately, there are tactics you can take to protect yourself from COVID-19 and not feel discomfort.

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“We have not had any discussions on this yet as a council," Baldwin said. "We are all aware that hospitalizations are on the rise, and we will be talking with Wake County for guidance as they lead on public health issues.”

For now, it appears the people will decide.

"I follow the data and the science," said Lisa Thalji. "Masks work. They are effective, I believe, in places where you can’t practice six to ten feet of physical distancing."

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Public split on Wake County officials' decision not requiring people to wear masks

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