36 of Dare County’s 97 COVID-19 cases are active, per Tuesday update

Dare County released the following COVID-19 update for Tuesday, June 30, which details the county’s current 36 active cases, recent testing efforts, and additional community information.

Dare County COVID-19 Case Update

The number of positive COVID-19 tests in Dare County is 97, 36 of which are considered active and in home isolation. Of the 97 cases, 59 are residents and 38 are non-residents.

Since the last Dare County DHHS Update issued, Friday, June 26, 2020 there have been 20 new positive cases. Of these 20 cases, 18 are residents and 2 are non-residents. The Dare County website has already been updated to reflect all of these cases.

Of the 18 resident cases:

• 12 of the cases are connected. The 12 individuals are close acquaintances or family members and acquired the virus through direct contact. 4 are symptomatic and 8 are asymptomatic.
• 3 of the cases are family members, all symptomatic, who acquired the virus from another family member whose positive result was reported on 6/24.
• 1 is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual whose positive result was reported on 6/24.
• 2 other cases are not connected. One is asymptomatic and one is symptomatic and both most likely acquired the virus by community spread.

Of the 2 nonresident cases:

• The cases are not connected
• One is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact outside of Dare County
• One is symptomatic and most likely acquired the virus through community spread outside of Dare County

Contract tracing has been completed and direct contacts provided by these 18 resident individuals have been identified, notified, and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure with the positive case. Calls are made to check on compliance with the quarantine directive and legal action can be taken for individuals violating quarantine and isolation orders. Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.  Isolation and quarantine are public health tools to help protect the public by preventing exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease. These may seem like extreme measures and we hope to never have to use them but they exist to protect the public from individuals who choose not to do the right thing.

Testing

Today we are partnering with Mako Medical Laboratories to host a community testing event. Today’s clinic is full with 525 appointments reserved. Details on the results of this testing event for the antibody tests and diagnostic tests will be shared in next Tuesday’s update.

Area healthcare providers are experiencing a delay in receiving results from the commercial laboratories. The turn around time to receive results is now taking on average 4 days. This delay is being experienced across the region due to the increase in testing. The lab companies have communicated they are working to improve the turnaround time and hope to get back to the 48 hour – 72 hour turnaround time soon.

Key Metrics

Dare County DHHS monitors and evaluates 4 key metrics associates 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 had the highest number of COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed by healthcare providers in Dare County at 578 tests. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March to 2,569. We had 44 positive cases between June 22 and June 28. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in early March increased slightly this week to 3.62%. The percent positive to total test for the past week alone was 7.6%. The syndromic surveillance of individuals who presented to the emergency department with COVID-19 like symptoms increased this week. We are also seeing an increase in the number of sick individuals presenting to the area urgent care centers. These graphs can be found on the dare county website at www.darenc.com/covid19

Follow the 3Ws

Please do your part to slow the spread of the virus by following the 3Ws –  – wear, wait and wash.

• 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

While there is now a mandate in Dare County where individuals must wear a face covering when social distancing (being less than 6 ft away) cannot be maintained, there are individuals who have legitimate medical reasons and are not able to wear a face covering. We all need to be kind, show compassion and understanding.

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, on Thursdays a Spanish Video Update 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.