Dare County provides Thanksgiving holiday guidelines in Friday’s COVID-19 update

Dare County released the following COVID-19 update for Friday, November 20, which details the county’s most recent active cases, testing efforts, and additional community information.

Thanksgiving Holiday Guidance

The best way to reduce your risk of viral transmission is to limit travel during the holidays and limit physical contact with people who do not live in your household.

You should practice the 3Ws and wear a face covering, keep 6 feet of social distancing, and wash hands well. The 3Ws are even more important if you are getting together with someone at high risk of complications with COVID-19.

If you are traveling and/or are planning to be with family members you do not live with during the holidays, consider having a COVID-19 screening test prior to travel or attending family gatherings. Be sure to get tested early enough to allow for your results to come in prior to the gathering.

Even if you have a negative test, you should wear a mask, physically distance, avoid crowds and indoor crowded places, wash your hands frequently, monitor yourself for symptoms, and minimize contact with people at high risk of complications of COVID-19.

For the complete document from NCDHHS on Holiday Guidance, please click here.

Dare County COVID-19 Case Update

The number of positive COVID-19 tests in Dare County is 945, of which there are 68 active cases among residents of Dare County. Of the 945 cases, 595 are residents and 350 are non-residents.  Five residents remain hospitalized from complications associated with COVID-19.

Since the last Dare County DHHS Update issued Tuesday, November 17, 2020, there have been new positive cases. Of these 41 cases, 32 are residents and 9 are non-residents. The Dare County website has already been updated to reflect all of these cases.

Of the 32 new resident cases since Tuesday, November 17th:

• 2 of the cases are connected. Both are symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual whose positive test result was reported on 11/13
• 3 of the cases are family members. All are symptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus.
• 1 individual acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County. This was a late report from the state and the individual has already recovered.
• 5 of the cases are not connected. All are symptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus.
• 19 of the cases are not connected. 16 are symptomatic and 3 are asymptomatic. All acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals whose positive test results have been reported between 11/12 and 11/17
• 2 of the cases are not connected. Both are symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals who tested positive outside of Dare County.

Of the 9 new non-resident cases since Tuesday, November 17th:

• 6 of the cases are connected. 4 are symptomatic and 2 are asymptomatic. All  acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals who tested positive outside of Dare County.
• 3 of the cases are not connected. 2 are symptomatic and 1 is asymptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus.

Contact tracing has been completed on 39 new 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. We are working with the other 2 individuals to identify and notify their direct contacts.

Controlling the Spread

COVID-19 remains a very contagious virus. We have seen an increase in new positive cases in Dare County over the past 3 weeks.Of the 945 total cases we have seen in Dare County since March, 242 (or 26%) have occurred in just the past 19 days. Below is some additional information regarding the most recent cases this week:

• The increase in cases is not due to an increase in testing. Last week, Dare County has its highest percent of positive tests to total test percentage since the pandemic started at 9.4%
• 78% of the 41 new cases are Dare County residents
• 73% of recent cases acquired the virus by direct contact with a positive individual
• 85% of recent cases are symptomatic

We cannot stress enough the importance of everyone doing their part to reduce the spread of this virus by using the proven tools available – the 3 Ws. Please be responsible, protect yourself and others by following the 3Ws:

• 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

Testing

We strongly encourage anyone who is experiencing symptoms to be tested as well as anyone who may have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19. Testing is widely available in Dare County. Please visit www.darenc.com/covidtesting for details on testing locations .

If you have questions about testing or locations please visit www.darenc.com/covidtesting or call the COVID-19 call center, open Monday – Friday from 8:30 am – 5 pm at 252-475-5008.

Communications and Information Sharing

Dare County DHHS has an established schedule of communication to share information regarding COVID-19. On Tuesdays, we release a written update and a video update which includes an overview of the previous week’s COVID-19 key metrics is issued. 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.