Technical issues, submission delays push number of coronavirus hospitalizations down

The state on Monday released a steep decline in the number of people being treated in hospitals for the novel coronavirus, but warned that the data could be incomplete.

"Since Friday, Sept. 4, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has experienced continued technical and submission issues with hospital systems' data, which have been exacerbated by the holiday weekend, resulting in incomplete hospitalization data. NCDHHS is working with all parties to resolve these issues. Because the COVID-19 NC Dashboard displays only data that it is received, it is likely that actual hospital numbers are higher than what is on the current dashboard," the state wrote in releasing the latest numbers.

Through Monday, the state had recorded 177,582 cases of the coronavirus, with 156,652 of those people believed to have recovered, for a recovery rate of more than 88%.

Almost 3,000 people in North Carolina have died of complications from COVID-19 since March.

The state reported 1,515 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, a rate that has been pretty steady for about two weeks and lower than the mid-July peak.