Nearly half of NC’s counties now have ‘high’ COVID community levels, CDC says
As North Carolina and the country see an uptick in COVID-19 cases due to the BA.5 subvariant, 41 of 100 counties currently carry higher risk of cases and hospitalizations.
That represents a big jump from 18 last week, as indicated by an orange color on the map updated Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Counties with a low level are green and medium level are yellow.
Most Triangle area counties and counties in central North Carolina have been designated as having a high community level, according to the CDC.
Durham, Orange, Chatham and Harnett counties are orange. Wake, Franklin and Johnston counties remain yellow.
In late May, Durham, Orange and Chatham moved from a low to a medium COVID-19 community level, The News & Observer previously reported.
BA.5, a subvariant of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, is the most transmissible variant yet in the pandemic, officials have said. Previous infections don’t provide the same protection as before.
The CDC ranks community levels by two factors based on a county’s current level of new cases per 100,000 people in the past 7 days: the number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, and the percentage staffed inpatient beds in use by COVID-19 patients.
Should masks be used?
The CDC instructs people in high community level areas to wear masks indoors in public, stay up to date with their vaccines and booster shots and to get tested if they have symptoms.
North Carolina has not had a mask mandate since last year, and most Triangle counties dropped their requirements earlier in 2022.
Officials in Durham County said no new mandates are planned.
“The Health Department will continue to work closely with our city and county leadership to track the spread of COVID-19 and determine any appropriate safety measures for the Durham community, as we have throughout this pandemic,” said Alecia Smith, a spokeswoman for the Durham County Department of Public Health.
A spokeswoman for Orange County declined to answer whether the county would consider implementing any measures as a result of the recent increase.
Orange continues to offer vaccines at two clinics and also continues to operate two testing locations.
A Chatham County spokesperson said the county isn’t looking at implementing mandatory virus prevention measures.
Two Chatham County Public Health Department locations in Pittsboro and Siler City offer free at-home tests and N95 masks upon request for pick up.
The BA.5 subvariant
In the Southeast, BA.5 comprises more than half of COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC.
Though with more people taking home tests or not getting tested at all, it’s harder to determine an accurate measure of COVID-19 cases.
The highly contagious subvariant is characterized as “a whole different animal” by the University of California Davis Health for being the most transmissible and has a capacity to “evade previous immunity from COVID infection and vaccination,” McClatchy News reported.
BA.5 and another newer omicron subvariant, BA.4, are four times more resistant to antibody protection offered by COVID-19 vaccines compared to BA.2, according to research published this month in the journal Nature.
COVID data in high-risk counties
Here is current COVID-19 data for the high-risk Triangle area counties, as of July 15. Data is updated every Wednesday.
Durham
▪ Case rate per 100,000 people:313.54
▪ New COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people:14
▪ Staffed inpatient beds in use by COVID-19 patients: 5.5%
Orange
▪ Case rate per 100,000 people: 269.4
▪ New COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people: 10.7
▪ Staffed inpatient beds in use by COVID-19 patients: 5.1%
Chatham
▪ Case rate per 100,000 people: 243
▪ New COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people: 9.5
▪ Staffed inpatient beds in use by COVID-19 patients: 5%
Harnett
▪ Case rate per 100,000 people: 205.92
▪ New COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people: 10.7
▪ Staffed inpatient beds in use by COVID-19 patients: 5.1%
