Dare County reports 50 new positive COVID-19 cases in the past week, per Tuesday update

March 30, 2021 | Local News

Dare County released the following update for Tuesday, March 30, which provides details on recent Coronavirus cases, current and future vaccine allotments, and more COVID-19 information.

The total COVID-19 positive case count in Dare County is 2,959 of which there are 46 active cases among residents of Dare County.

This past week there were 50 new positive COVID-19 cases in Dare County. The majority of these new cases are linked to small outbreaks among employees at multiple businesses. The remaining new cases are linked to direct contact between family members and close friends. The percent of positive tests to total tests for this past week decreased slightly from 9.76% to 9.07%.

Since our last report on 3/23, there have been 58 new COVID-19 cases. Of these 58 new cases:

44 (76%) are symptomatic
49 (85%) acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual or individuals who were positive for COVID-19.

As we head into the Easter holiday and spring break, please do not let your guard down. The CDC is cautioning that another wave of an increase in cases is probable. We know we can control the spread of the virus by practicing the 3Ws (wear a face covering, wait 6 ft apart from others and washing your hands) and getting your COVID vaccine.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Over the past 12 weeks, we have provided 12,955 initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and have fully vaccinated 9,244 individuals. Over the next two weeks we will administer an additional 2,370 first doses and 1,750 second doses.

As we move closer to the busy summer season we strongly encourage anyone who wishes to be vaccinated to please go to our website now at www.darenc.com/covidvaccine to complete the vaccination request form. Staff will then call you to schedule an appointment, as appointments are available. We ask for your continued patience as we anticipate it could take 1 – 2 weeks to get an appointment from the time you register on-line.

If you have registered on our website for a vaccine and no longer need your appointment, please email us at covid19@darenc.com so we can remove you from our waitlist. Additionally, please only register one time through the website. If you are unsure if your registration was successfully submitted you may call us at 252-475-5008 or send us an email at covid19@darenc.com to check. This will help us be as efficient as possible when scheduling appointments.

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 551 COVID-19 diagnostic tests reported in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March of last year to 35,562. There were 50 positive cases between March 22 and March 28. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in March 2020 plateaued this past week at 8.29%. The percent of positive tests to total tests for the past week alone decreased slightly to 9.07%. Syndromic surveillance of individuals presenting with COVID like symptoms to the emergency department and urgent care centers continues to show low levels of activity. 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.