Post 15: March 22, 11:15 a.m.
New statewide totals of confirmed coronavirus cases released at 10:16 Sunday morning showed COVID-19 spreading at an accelerating rate in North Carolina, with 71 new cases since Saturday and a new total of 255 from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Service’s official count.
coronavirus news NCYet the updated report did not include Buncombe County, the most populous in the state’s western region, which announced its first case around midday on Saturday, raising questions about the timeliness and accuracy of the DHHS total, as the statewide agencies coordinates with health officials in 100 counties.
CPP has asked Buncombe County and DHHS for clarification on this situation, but did not receive a response before publication of this update.
Buncombe County health officials said Saturday that they are waiting on the results of “hundreds” of tests taken over the last week, many of which they expect to be positive for coronavirus.
The state totals for Sunday added five counties for the first time, including Cherokee and Henderson counties in west, where Watauga had been the only county included on the official totals. Other new counties Sunday were Davie, Robeson and Carteret. One county that had previously been reported with a confirmed case, Cleveland, was removed from the list after finding that the patient was a resident of a different county.
DHHS is reporting confirmed cases as of Sunday morning include 39 of the state’s 100 counties. From west to east, these are: Cherokee, Henderson, Watauga, Lincoln, Catawba, Gaston, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, Davie, Rowan, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, Moore, Scotland, Chatham, Alamance, Hoke, Lee, Orange, Harnett, Durham, Robeson, Cumberland, Wake, Granville, Brunswick, Johnston, Sampson, Wayne, Wilson, New Hanover, Onslow, Pitt, Craven, Carteret and Pasquotank.
DHHS reports that 6,438 tests for the virus have completed across the state, however the agency acknowledges that this includes only testing completed by the NC State Laboratory of Public Health and voluntarily reported cases from hospitals and commercial laboratories. While reporting of positive tests is mandatory from these private entities, they are only supposed to report negative tests and not required to do so. As a result, the total number of tests administered in North Carolina so far is difficult to know.