Dare County Reports 269 New Cases in the Past Week, per Tuesday Update

January 5, 2021 | Local News

Dare County released the following update for Tuesday, January 5, which provides details on current cases, vaccine information, and more COVID-19 updates.

Dare County COVID-19 Case Update

New cases of COVID-19 are continuing to grow rapidly in Dare County, as well as the state and nation. Since our last report on 12/29, we have seen an increase of 269 new COVID-19 cases. Of these 269 new cases:

226 (84%) are symptomatic
218 (81%) acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual or individuals who were positive for COVID-19.

We have seen a marked increase in the percent positivity rate. For the past week alone the percent of positive tests to total tests for COVID-19 was 14.9%. The total COVID-19 positive case count in Dare County is 1,829, of which there are 183 active cases among residents of Dare County. Of the 1,829 cases, 1026 are residents and 623 are non-residents. Currently, 10 residents are hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19. Sadly, we received notification yesterday of another resident who died due to complications from the COVID-19 virus.

Controlling the Spread

The vast majority of new cases of COVID-19 in Dare County continue to be linked to direct contact between close friends, co-workers and families. As anticipated much of the rise in recent cases is connected to gatherings of coworkers, families and friends around the Christmas holiday.

You can protect yourself and others and help reduce the spread of this virus by practicing the 3Ws – wear a mask, wait six feet apart from others and wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use hand sanitizer.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Information on the vaccination plan is rapidly evolving. Our department is now accepting registration information for Priority Phase 1b, Group 1, individuals 75 and over. Information for registration can be submitted online at www.darenc.com/Register4Vaccine or by calling the COVID-19 call center at 252-475-5008. Please know, we are only receiving a very limited amount of the vaccine each week from the state. We will schedule individuals from the appropriate Phase as the vaccine supply allows. Based on the anticipated number of individuals 75 and older who wish to receive the vaccine and the amount of vaccine we may receive each week, it will likely be the beginning of February before we can begin registering individuals in Phase 1b, Group 2 for appointments,

Please visit www.darenc.com/covidvaccine or the NC DHHS website at www.covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines for more information.

Key Metrics

Each week we review the 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 1,776 COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March to 27,122. There were 264 positive cases between December 28 and January 3. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in early March increased to 6.62%. The percent of positive tests to total tests for the past week increased to 14.9%. Syndromic surveillance of the emergency department and urgent care centers showed an increase in individuals presenting with COVID like symptoms . These graphs can be found on the dare county website at www.darenc.com/covid19.

Communications and Information Sharing

Dare County DHHS has an established schedule of communication to share information regarding COVID-19. Every Tuesday, a written update and a video update which includes an overview of the previous week’s COVID-19 key metrics is issued. Additional updates will be released as needed. 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.