Dare County posts the last scheduled weekly update for COVID-19 due to significant improvements

Dare County released the following update for Tuesday, March 15, which provides details on recent Coronavirus cases, vaccine data, and more COVID-19 information.

Per the update, this will be the last scheduled weekly update for COVID-19 from the county, due to significant improvements in the COVID-19-related data over the last several weeks. 

This report will be our last scheduled weekly written update for COVID-19. This decision was made due to significant improvements in the COVID-19 related data over the last several weeks. Dare County Department of Health & Human Services is making this shift in public information efforts due to the following reasons:

• Reported positive cases and tests reported have been trending downwards.
• Over 70% of our population is vaccinated with a two dose mRNA series or one dose or J&J.
• Dare County has been classified as a low (or green) COVID-19 community level for the past two weeks.

Additional written updates will be issued as needed. A weekly dashboard update will be made available each Monday on our COVID-19 Website.

Dare County COVID-19 Case Update

The total number of new laboratory confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Dare County for the past week was 33. Currently, based on the reported positive cases, there are 11 active COVID-19 cases among residents of Dare County. There is 1 resident hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19.

CDC COVID-19 Community Levels

Dare County is now classified as a low (or green) COVID-19 community transmission level.  More information on the CDCs COVID-19 levels is available at  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html.

COVID Vaccinations in Dare

All individuals 5 years of age and over are encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccination and boosters as recommended by the CDC. COVID-19 vaccinations are readily available at numerous locations throughout the county including Dare County Department of Health & Human Services and many area pharmacies like: Walgreens, CVS, Sunshine Family Pharmacy, Island Pharmacy, Bear Drugs, and Beach Pharmacy.

Dare County Department of Health & Human Services offers Moderna and Pfizer booster vaccines. You may call your area pharmacy or call our Clinical Services team at 252.475.5003 (select option #2, leave a message if you reach voicemail) to register for a vaccine appointment,

Dare County Department of Health & Human Services will no longer be providing weekly Vaccine Data metrics in a dashboard format. You may visit https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/vaccinations to view this information. Scroll down on this page to the section titled “People Vaccinated with at Least one Dose by County of Residence.” Hover your mouse over Dare County on the map and these metrics will pop up on your screen.

Key Metrics

This past week there were 261 COVID-19 diagnostic tests reported in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests reported since early March of last year to 72,893.  There were 33 positive cases between March 7 and March 13. Syndromic surveillance of individuals presenting with COVID like symptoms to the emergency department and urgent care have decreased. These graphs can be found on the Dare County website at www.darenc.com/covid19.

For Dare County specific COVID-19 metrics please visit: CDC’s COVID-19 Data Tracker: Integrated County View and type North Carolina and Dare County in their respective fields to view data.

Communications and Information Sharing

A weekly dashboard will be updated on our COVID-19 website each Monday. Additional updates will be provided as needed, which would include information such as outbreaks, clusters, and vaccine recommendations.