Health Team

US, NC see record number of COVID deaths as hospitalizations continue to climb

The state reported 82 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, a single-day record, as the number of those in the hospital being treated for the novel coronavirus also continues to climb.

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By
Jodi Leese Glusco
, WRAL director of digital content
RALEIGH, N.C. — The state reported 82 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, a single-day record, as the number of those in the hospital being treated for the novel coronavirus also continues to climb.

On Wednesday, a record 2,039 were hospitalized. More than half of those hospitalizations come from two of the eight regions of the state.

The Triad area has the most, with 28% of all patients hospitalized and 30% of those in intensive care.

The Metro-lina region around Charlotte is seeing nearly that amount.

The data show more men than women in the hospital, with the majority of patients (66%) over age 60. Just 23% are under 50. About 54% percent of patients with COVID are white and 34% are black.

Whites make up about 71% of North Carolina's population, so right now, they're under-indexing in hospitalizations.

Black people are about 22% of the population, so a larger percentage of them are hospitalized with COVID than the general population.

On Wednesday the state reported 4,199 new cases of the virus. While most people – about 80% of the 371,594 who have tested positive since March – recover, 5,366 have died across the state, with about half of those deaths coming since the beginning of September.

On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper warned, "We do have a tough couple of months ahead of us."

The White House Coronavirus Task Force issued extremely dire warnings to states in reports on Sunday, urging public health officials to circumvent state and local policies amid record high cases, hospitalizations and deaths, as well as fears of a surge upon a surge following Thanksgiving.

The report said, "The national daily COVID incidence after Memorial Day, but before the summer surge, was fewer than 25,000 new cases/day and is now more than 180,000 new cases/day; COVID inpatients then were fewer than 30,000 but are now more than 90,000; fatalities have more than doubled."

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