57% of Dare County residents are fully vaccinated, per county’s weekly update

Dare County released the following update for Tuesday, June 15, 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 21.

Of these 21 new cases:

• 18 (86%) are symptomatic
• 19 (92%) acquired the virus by direct contact with an unvaccinated individual or individuals who were positive for COVID-19.
• 1 of the new cases was fully vaccinated

Currently, there are 14 active COVID-19 cases among residents of Dare County. There have been a total of 9 breakthrough COVID-19 cases reported in Dare County.

COVID-19 Vaccine

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, Sunshine Family Pharmacy, Island Pharmacy, Bear Drugs, and Beach Pharmacy.

Since late December, a total of 22,374 (60%) of eligible Dare County residents have received an initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 20,969 (57%) 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.

State Vaccine Cash Incentive Drawings

As part of North Carolina’s effort to bring summer back with safe, effective and free COVID-19 vaccines, Governor Cooper announced the $4 Million Summer Cash and Summer Cash 4 College Drawings to motivate those who have not yet been vaccinated—and thank those who have. Four North Carolinians 18 and older will win $1 million each, and four North Carolinians ages 12 to 17 will win tuition for post-secondary education. Winners will be selected through a series of four drawings, from June 23 through August 4.  Drawings will take place every other week on Wednesdays. New entries will close at midnight on the Sunday prior to that week’s Wednesday drawing. Winners will be verified and then announced.

Entries will be drawn from the state’s COVID-19 vaccination records. To be entered in the drawing, a record of at least one dose of vaccine must be available in CVMS by 11:59pm on the Sunday prior to the drawing.  Those vaccinated on or after today’s announcement, June 10, will be entered twice for each drawing.  Learn more about the $4 Million Summer Cash and Summer Cash 4 College Drawings at SummerVaxCash.com and visit the FAQ site for general COVID-19 vaccine questions.

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 357 COVID-19 diagnostic tests reported in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March of last year to 40,434.  There were 21 positive cases between June 7 and June 13. The percentage of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in March 2020 decreased to 8.10%. The percent of positive tests to total tests for the past week increased slightly to 5.88%. 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.