RALEIGH, N.C. — Here are the latest updates on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in North Carolina and across the globe:
What you need to know:
- North Carolina has 139 people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus. There state's first case of community spread of the virus was reported in Wilson County.
- More than 8,700 people in the U.S. are infected, and nearly 150 people have died across the country.
- The State Department has warned all U.S. citizens not to travel internationally.
- Gov. Roy Cooper mandated all bars and restaurants in North Carolina close to encourage social distancing. Takeout, delivery and drive-thru options may still be available.
- Numerous events have been canceled across the region, including business conferences, festivals, concerts and more.
- A toll-free Hope Line has been established for older adults experiencing isolation from social distancing. Call 1-866-578-4673 or 1-866-578-HOPE.
Important links:
Get details on NC cases:
Latest updates:
Thursday, March 19
11:43 p.m.: A Raleigh restaurant whose owners have seen their own hard times in years past is doing what it can to give back to its employees during the coronavirus outbreak. Rosalia Fodera shows us how in the below video.
10:16 p.m.: A Facebook video with Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin was posted to the City of Raleigh Government Facebook page on Thursday. She talked about what she is hearing from the community, how the city is addressing the outbreak and what people can do to reduce the stress during these tough times.
9:45 p.m.: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a statewide order for people to stay at home amid the coronavirus outbreak.
7:10 p.m.: Harnett County reports its fifth and sixth coronavirus cases. No details were released.
7 p.m.: Eight more Durham County residents have tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the county total to 35. No details were released.
6:55 p.m.: President Donald Trump has called off the June meeting of G-7 nations at Camp David due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Associated Press. The leaders will meet by videoconference instead.
5:35p.m.: Wake County reported two other new coronavirus cases on Thursday, aside from a person who attended a concert at PNC Arena last week while showing symptoms. The county now has 25 cases.
"As we continue to learn about new positive cases in our community, it is imperative that social distancing recommendations be taken seriously," Wake County Medical Director Dr. Kim McDonald said in a statement. "The short-term actions we take now, while they may be inconvenient, will help us slow the virus’ spread and reduce the burden on our health care system."
There are 77 people in the county under investigation who were exposed to the virus and have developed symptoms. Of those, 56 are waiting for test results, while the other 21 are in the process of being tested.
Wake County health officials also have identified another 253 people who are being monitored because they may have been exposed to the virus through close contact. The county will monitor them for two weeks to see if they develop symptoms.
5:30 p.m.: The North Carolina Department of Revenue is offering individuals and businesses tax relief as part of the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The agency won't impose late payment penalties for income tax due on April 15 if the tax is paid by July 15.
Anyone who cannot file an income tax return by April 15 must request an extension from the IRS or the Department of Revenue on or before April 15.
5 p.m.: Moore County has reported its second positive coronavirus test. No other details were released.
4:55 p.m.: Kohl's will temporarily close all of its stores nationwide at 7 p.m. (local time) Thursday. The closures last at least through April 1.
"We will support store associates with two calendar weeks of pay," Michelle Gass, Kohl’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We will continue to serve customers on Kohls.com and our Kohl’s App, and we look forward to reopening our stores soon to serve families across the country."
4:35 p.m.: Durham Mayor Steve Schewel has amended his state of emergency declaration to order all local gyms, fitness centers, health clubs and theaters to close at 5 p.m. Friday. The order doesn't provide online programming.
4 p.m.: The U.S. State Department has advised people to avoid international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period," the agency said in an advisory.
3:35 p.m.: A Wake County resident who attended The Millennium Tour 2020 at PNC Arena on March 13 has tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said.
The person was symptomatic while attending the event and was at the R&B/hip-hop concert from 8:20 p.m. Friday to midnight Saturday. The person had floor seats in Section 5 but moved throughout the crowd during the show, officials said.
“Because the crowd was so mobile, it would be very difficult determine who came within 6 feet of the affected person for 10 minutes or more,” Wake County Medical Director Dr. Kim McDonald said in a statement. “If you went to the show and spent time on the floor, you may be at risk of exposure.”
The Wake County Public Health Division has set up a special information line at 919-857-9375 for people who attended the show or worked at PNC Arena on March 13. The county is also emailing anyone who bought tickets to the concert to inform them about the situation and advise them on next steps.
Officials said they don't believe anyone at PNC Arena outside of that timeframe is at risk of contracting COVID-19.
"We are assisting local officials in notifying attendees who were present last Friday night, and we will continue to follow the leads of our county, state and federal leaders in mitigating the spread of this illness," PNC Arena management said in a statement.
3:30 p.m.: The Cannes Film Festival in France has been postponed due to the coronavirus, and organizers are now looking at June or July dates, according to The Associated Press.
3:20 p.m.: Cumberland County has two people who have tested positive for coronavirus, the county's first cases. One contracted it through travel, while the second case remains under investigation, officials said.
3:15 p.m.: Duke University is looking to redeploy faculty and staff to its hospitals for help with "providing critical patient care as more of our neighbors come to us for support during this pandemic."
3:05 p.m.: A person tested positive for coronavirus in Pitt County after visiting an East Carolina University Physicians clinic, the university said. It is the county's first positive case of the disease.
2:50 p.m.: Bridgestone Americans announced a temporary, phased shutdown of its manufacturing plants in North America and Latin America beginning this weekend. The tire company said facilities plan to resume normal operations by April 12.
Bridgestone has manufacturing facilities in Oxford, Gastonia and Kings Mountain.
2:35 p.m.: At least 100 conventions, meetings and sporting events in Wake County have been canceled or postponed so far because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to Visit Raleigh and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance . The events would have had nearly 50,000 attendees combined and produced more than $36.2 million in total economic impact, the groups said.
Only 11 of the events have been rescheduled for a later date, they said.
2:15 p.m.: Wake Technical Community College has postponed its graduation ceremony from May 9 to July 25 in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The school also has set up a hotline for questions about the transition to all online classes. People can call 919-866-5000 or send an email to answers@waketech.edu.
Meanwhile, Fayetteville Technical Community College has canceled its spring graduation ceremony.
"While we hope the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will be improving by May 15, the date we had set for graduation, the current situation is far too serious for us to count on this," college President J. Larry Keen said in a statement. "FTCC will celebrate the important achievements of the Class of 2020 and give those graduates the chance to walk across the stage in cap and gown. But we will now plan to do this in December instead of in May."
2:10 p.m.: Raleigh-Durham International Airport has seen a "sharp decline" in traffic in March amid travel restrictions and fears over the new coronavirus, airport President and CEO Michael Landguth said.
"The [airport] authority is taking proactive measures to protect the health and safety of everyone at the airport. While we are unable to speculate how long these impacts will last, the airport is financially stable and able to adapt to dynamic business circumstances," Landguth said in a statement.
RDU's board has cut $95 million in capital projects and operational expenses from next year's budget in response to decreased airport revenue from the pandemic and will delay fee increases until at least July 1.
1:55 p.m.: Guilford County deputies spotted a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 that violated the law and followed the vehicle to a nearby warehouse, where they determined that the vehicle had been stolen and was being used to transport 18,000 pounds of toilet paper, the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post. No charges have been filed, but the case remains under investigation.
1:25 p.m.: Goodyear Tire & Rubber is closing all of its U.S. plants, including one in Fayetteville, through April 3, according to various media reports. Plants in Europe and South America also will be idled.
A company statement said the move was in response to ″the sudden decline in market demand resulting from the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.″
1:20 p.m.: Italy has overtaken China as the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths, registering 3,405 dead, according to The Associated Press.
1 p.m.: A new coronavirus case in Wilson County is the state's first case of community spread of the virus, Gov. Roy Cooper said. The person hadn't traveled to a hotspot or been in contact with someone who also has the virus, he said.
"This is an expected but unfortunate benchmark," Cooper said.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said the state has already moved from containment efforts to mitigation efforts, saying that officials knew they would see community spread sooner or later.
State officials will expand efforts to track the virus to better determine how to slow and stop its spread, Cohen said.
12:45 p.m.: North Carolina has 115 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Mecklenburg County officials announced 16 more cases on Thursday morning, bringing that county's total to 30.
12:40 p.m.: President Donald Trump said he supports the idea of the government taking an ownership stake in companies that are bailed out in a federal stimulus bill.
12:25 p.m.: President Donald Trump said he expects bipartisan support for a proposed economic stimulus package, dismissing criticism that it would bail out some industries but not others.
"We're not picking winners," Trump said. "Our ultimate goal are the people."
12:20 p.m.: President Donald Trump said Micky Arison, the chairman of Carnival Cruise Lines, has agreed to make some of the company's ships available as hospital ships, if needed.
12:15 p.m.: President Donald Trump said he hasn't put the Defense Production Act into action, redirecting some industrial production to the coronavirus battle, because states and localities are handling the need for medical supplies and other needed goods.
"We're not a shipping clerk," said Trump, who invoked the wartime measure on Wednesday. "We're working with the governors. We're working with the states."
12:10 p.m.: U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams urged people, especially millennials to donate blood, as supplies are shrinking amid the coronavirus outbreak.
"Social distancing does not have ot mean social disengagement," Adams said.
12:05 p.m.: About half of the positive coronavirus cases nationwide come from 10 U.S. counties, said Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Testing has shown that about 90 percent of severe respiratory illnesses in the U.S. aren't due to the new virus, Birx said.
12 p.m.: The Federal Emergency Management Agency will take the lead in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, Vice President Mike Pence said.
11:55 a.m.: FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the agency is looking at possibly using blood from people who have recovered from COVID-19, the illness associated with the new coronavirus, to transfer immunity to others.
11:50 a.m.: Cape Fear Valley Health Systems hospitals and clinics will close to all visitors on Friday to limit the spread of the coronavirus, officials said. The only exceptions are women in labor, pediatric patients and patients who need a health care decision maker or require communication assistance. In each case, one person will be allowed.
End-of-life patients will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine the appropriate number of visitors, officials said.
11:45 a.m.: President Donald Trump said a powerful malaria drug might be deployed in the battle against the new coronavirus.
"We are looking at everything coming across our desks as possible treatments," FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said.
11:40 a.m.: President Donald Trump said the Food and Drug Administration is forgoing some of its rules to speed development of potential coronavirus vaccines. The FDA is also reviewing drugs from overseas for possible use in the U.S. and will use "right-to-try" guidelines to allow COVID-19 patients to use some of these drugs before they go through the normal approvals.
11:00 a.m.: Lynda Elliot, executive director of the North Carolina Cosmetics Board, said the board has no authority to close any of the 15,000 hair, nail and eyebrow salons in the state.
"It’s an individual‘s choice, I don’t have any guidance. I don’t have the answers," Elliot said.
10:45 a.m.: Pitt County, home to East Carolina University, has reported its first positive case of coronavirus. According to the county, the patient is a man who recently traveled out of state. He is in isolation at home.
10:40 a.m.: Democratic 4th District Congressman David Price is quarantining himself after learning that two other U.S. House members have tested positive for the coronavirus.
"After consulting with the attending physician, I determined that my contacts did not fall within guidelines that require quarantine. However, as a precautionary measure, I will be self-quarantining and working from home through March 25th. Certain members of my staff will follow the same guidelines. Fortunately, neither I, nor staff members in contact with the member, have experienced any symptoms," Price said in a statement.
Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ben McAdams said Wednesday that they tested positive for the virus.
10:30 a.m.: The number of people in North Carolina who have tested positive for coronavirus has increased to 98, state health officials said.
10:15 a.m.: University of North Carolina at Wilmington officials said the school may postpone commencement ceremony.
10:15 a.m.: Small businesses across the economic landscape of North Carolina are eligible for loans of up to $2 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which
approved a disaster declaration that Gov. Roy Cooper requested earlier this week.
9:30 a.m.: Applications for unemployment benefits surged by 70,000 last week as the impact of the coronavirus outbreak began taking hold in the labor market. Yet, the U.S. unemployment rate fell to a half-century low of 3.5 percent.
9:15 a.m.: The
CDC has loosened its guidelines to allow health care workers to continue working even if they have been exposed to the coronavirus as long as they wear masks. If they run out of masks, especially due to hoarding by the public, they are advised to use a scarf or a bandana.
8:30 a.m.: After a fundraiser for
Carolina for the Kids was canceled due to coronavirus, the nonprofit found a creative way to raise money online while giving homebound people a chance to interact digitally.
The group's annual UNC Dance Marathon fundraiser for UNC Children’s Hospital will become a
Virtual Dance Marathon this year. The event is typically a 24-hour, no-sitting, no-sleeping event in which nearly 1,000 UNC-Chapel Hill students participate, according to Kalina MacKay, Public Relations Chair for Carolina for the Kids.
"We're hoping to use this as an opportunity to reach a bigger audience by allowing access to those who may not traditionally be able to participate," MacKay said.
8 a.m.: GasBuddy confirmed that a BP station in Kentucky has lowered its price to 99 cents per gallon, becoming the first gas station in the U.S. to break the $1-a-gallon mark.
7:45 a.m.: A second coronavirus case has been confirmed in Wilson County.
7:00 a.m.: Dow futures are down 320 points. Nasdaq is down 44 points. S&P 500 is down 37.25 points.
5:30 a.m.: As businesses, restaurants and venues close, North Carolina's animal shelters remain open and busy.
Elaine Smith, director of the Cumberland County Animal Center, said the Fayetteville shelter is looking for fosters. If you're working from home and have extra time on your hands, it could be the perfect time to treat a dog or cat to a few weeks of fun and love.
Animal shelters and rescues provide their foster parents with the food and supplies they need -- you just provide the love. Clearing cages makes room for more animals, reducing the chance that animals will need to be euthanized for space.
5 a.m.: Simon Properties has closed its Charlotte-area malls and outlets,
including Concord Mills, SouthPark and Charlotte Premium Outlets, through March 29, at least. Meanwhile, many Triangle malls remain open, including Crabtree Valley, which has limited its hours to noon to 7 p.m., according to its website. But shopping options will be limited –
Belk, JC Penney, Macy's, Old Navy, Bath & Body Works and more stores have already announced they would close.
4:30 a.m.: Italy is on track to surpass China in the number of deaths related to coronavirus. The deaths are related to Italy’s elderly population, its overwhelmed healthcare system and its delay in imposing a complete lockdown in the epicenter, Lombardy.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. and around the world, many young people are ignoring officials' warnings about social distancing and continuing with vacations and Spring Break plans. It's especially concerning to senior citizens, who are at risk.
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