Dare County reports a rise in new COVID-19 cases over the past week, per Tuesday update

July 6, 2021 | Local News

Dare County released the following update for Tuesday, July 6, which provides details on recent Coronavirus cases, vaccine data, and more COVID-19 information.

Dare County COVID-19 Case Update

The total number of new positive cases reported in Dare County over the past week was 27.

Of these 27 new cases:

23 (89%) are symptomatic
25 (94%) acquired the virus by direct contact with unvaccinated individuals who were positive for COVID-19.
No breakthrough cases reported this past week.

Currently, there are 17 active COVID-19 cases among residents of Dare County. 2 residents remain hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19. There have been a total of 11 breakthrough COVID-19 cases reported in Dare County.

Delta Variant

This past week we saw a rise in new positive cases and the percent positivity rate. Dare County went from a 2% positivity rate for the week of June 21st to a 7% positivity rate for the past week. At the state level the Delta variant has been rapidly replacing the other variants as the predominant variant. Positive COVID test samples are being sequenced to assess for variants, however, this sequencing takes approximately 3 weeks so we have not received Dare County specific data from the state. However, based on the prevalence of the Delta variant in the state it is reasonable to expect the Delta variant is present in Dare County. For the week of 6/7, a little over 10% of the sequenced COVID-19 viruses from NC were identified as the Delta variant. For the week of 6/14, that percentage rose to 40%. The Delta variant is 66% more transmissible and early indication is that it causes more illness and potentially more hospitalizations. The currently available COVID-19 vaccinations are proving to be effective against the Delta variant.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself against COVID-19. In North Carolina, 99.2% of newly diagnosed cases are in unvaccinated individuals. All individuals 12 years of age and over are encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccination. COVID-19 vaccinations are readily available at numerous locations throughout the county including the health department and many area pharmacies like: Walgreens, CVS, Sunshine Family Pharmacy, Island Pharmacy, Bear Drugs, and Beach Pharmacy.

Since late December 2020, a total of 23,001 (62%) of eligible Dare County residents have received an initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 22,017 (59%) are fully vaccinated.

In addition to preventing serious illness and death, getting your COVID-19 vaccine prevents you from being quarantined if you are exposed to a person who tests positive for COVID-19, as long as you remain symptom free.

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 370 COVID-19 diagnostic tests reported in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March of last year to 41,426. There were 27 positive cases between June 28 and July 4. The percentage of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in March 2020 remained the same at 8.00%. The percent of positive tests to total tests for the past week increased to 7.00%. 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 which includes 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 and on our website and shared on the DHHS facebook page each Tuesday. 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.

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