Total COVID-19 case count in Dare County is 360, which includes 203 residents, per Tuesday update

Dare County released the following COVID-19 update for Friday, July 24, which details the county’s most recent active cases, testing efforts, and additional community information.

The total COVID-19 positive case count in Dare County is 360, of which 23 are considered active cases. Of the 360 cases, 203 are residents and 157 are non-residents.

Since the last Dare County DHHS Update issued, Friday, July 31, 2020 there have been 13 new positive cases. Of these 13 cases, 6 are residents and 7 are non-residents. The Dare County website has already been updated to reflect all of these cases.

Of the 6 resident cases since Friday, July 31st: 

• One of the cases is symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual whose positive test result was reported on 7/25
• One of the cases is symptomatic and acquired the virus from a family member whose positive test result was reported on 7/29
• One of the cases is symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County
• 3 of the cases are not connected, all symptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus, which indicates community spread.

 Of the 7 non-resident cases since Friday, July 31st:

• 2 of the cases are family members, both symptomatic, who acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County.
• One of the cases is symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County
•  4 of the cases are not connected, 1 symptomatic and 3 asymptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus, which indicates community spread.

Contact tracing has been completed on 11 of the cases and direct contacts provided by these individuals have been identified, notified, and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure with the positive case. The 14 day quarantine requirement is very important to slowing the spread of the virus as the incubation period for this virus is 2 – 14 days. We are working to complete contact tracing on the other 2 new cases.

While sadly we reported a second death this week due to COVID 19, the overall numbers of new positive cases this week was encouraging. Over this past week Dare County had the lowest number of new positive cases since the week of June 15th, despite having the highest number of tests performed in this particular week. We must all remain vigilant if we are to see this trend continue. Please follow the 3Ws to help protect you, your family, and our community from COVID-19.

• Wear a cloth face covering if you will be with other people.
• Wait 6 feet apart. Avoid close contact.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer

Key Metrics

Dare County DHHS monitors and evaluates 4 key metrics associated with disease investigation and surveillance. The metrics are:

• Number of Tests
• Confirmed Cases
• Positive Tests as a Percent of Total Tests
• COVID Like Illness Surveillance

This past week there were 1,082 COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed in Dare County, 828 by local healthcare providers and 254 at the community testing event held on Tuesday, July 28th. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March to 7,491.  We had 42 positive cases between July 27 and August 2. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in early March decreased this week to 4.77%. The percent positive to total test for the past week alone was 3.9%, which is the lowest weekly percentage since the week of July 6th. Syndromic surveillance of individuals presenting to the emergency department with COVID-19 related symptoms increased slightly from the previous week. Local urgent care centers continue to see a high number of patients presenting with COVID like symptoms.  These graphs can be found on the dare county website at www.darenc.com/covid19

Testing

We will be partnering with Mako Medical Laboratories to host another testing clinic on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 starting at 1:00 p.m. at Dare County Parks & Recreation located at 602 Mustian St, Kill Devil Hills, NC. Individuals can register for an appointment for the diagnostic test, the antibody test, or both. Registration is required.

To schedule an appointment, please call 252.475.5008. The call center is open Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Participants are required to send a photocopy of their government-issued identification card and insurance card prior to the event.

COVID Questions and Guidance

If you have specific questions regarding COVID-19 please use the resources we have available. We welcome your phone calls at the COVID-19 call center at 252-475-5008 or you may email us your questions at covid19@darenc.com. We use social media as a tool to help share information with the public but we do not use that as the platform to answer specific questions. Please contact us directly via phone or email if you would like a response to a specific question.

Communications and Information Sharing

Dare County DHHS has an established schedule of communication to share information regarding COVID-19. On Tuesdays, a written update and a video update which includes an overview of the previous week’s COVID-19 key metrics is issued, and on Fridays a written update is issued. All released videos and written updates can be found on our website, DHHS facebook page, Dare County Twitter page, and Dare Emergency Management Twitter page. If you would like to receive these updates directly to your email, please sign up to receive our enotifications.

New positive cases are updated on the dashboard on our website and shared on the DHHS facebook page when we receive them. To find the most up-to-date information on COVID-19 cases in Dare County visit www.darenc.com/covid19. State COVID-19 data is available at https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard.