Surry County’s confirmed COVID-19 infections have remained steady this week, with just one case added since the weekend, bringing the total to 13 as of 11 a.m. Thursday. The state issues updates once daily, around 11 each morning, so those are the latest figures available.
Surrounding counties, while generally lower than Surry County the past couple of weeks, are seeing numbers tick up faster now.
In Stokes County, the total confirmed cases stood at 11 Thursday morning; in Yadkin County the cases had climbed to 16, with one death; in Wilkes County there are now 33 confirmed cases with 1 death; and in Alleghany County there are still just three cases.
Forsyth County has continued to be among the harder hit regions of the state, with 219 cases and five deaths.
Across the border in Virginia, Carroll County has seen its numbers jump to 11 after holding at three for nearly two weeks, Patrick County has two confirmed cases, Grayson County has two, and in the city of Galax, on the border between Grayson and Carroll counties, four cases have been confirmed. There have been no coronavirus-related deaths in those Virginia localities.
Those numbers in bordering communities have continued to climb, even as the Surry County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution calling on Gov. Roy Cooper to rescind his stay-at-home order for Surry County and other rural communities.
That order, originally issued March 27 with an April 29 expiration, was extended to May 8.
“The numbers in our county don’t reflect having our county shut down completely,” said Commissioner Mark Marion during the Wednesday called meeting to discuss the resolution. “I feel that with precautions and a few restrictions we can get up and running again.”
His comments were generally a shared sentiment among the board members, all of whom expressed concern for local businesses, and their employees, who were facing financial hardships with all but non-essential businesses being closed under the governor’s order.
The resolution the board passed urges the governor to “allow Surry County and other rural counties in the state to reopen businesses in a safe and responsible manner, taking into account social distancing and mass gathering restrictions, exercise of proper hygiene, increased COVID-19 testing capability and extensive contact tracing measures to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.”
A few figures supplied by Surry County Health and Nutrition would seem to lend some support to their argument.
Maggie Simmons, assistant health director there, said her department is aware of roughly 500 local individuals who have been tested. Not all local providers give testing info to the health and nutrition office unless it’s a positive result, so it’s possible those figures could be higher
Based on 500, however, the percentage of those being tested who are positive is slightly more than 2.5%. Statewide, that figure is more than 8%.
Gov. Cooper, in his decision to extend the order to at least May 8, outlined a series of gradual steps that will be taken to lift the stay-at-home order, and he listed milestones the state must see in the spread of the coronavirus before those steps will be enacted.
Among those is the ability for the state to test at least 5,000 to 7,000 individuals per day. At the time Cooper outlined those milestones, on April 23, the state was testing between 2,500 and 3,000 individuals per day, according to information released by his office.
It was not clear from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday how much testing is being done daily now, but the total number of tests completed in North Carolina since the start of the coronavirus outbreak stood at 128,036, slightly more than 1.2% of the state’s 10.5 million residents.
Locally, where test results had been taking as much as ten days to turn around, those wait times have dropped. However, widespread testing of the general population is still not available.
“Currently, there are no mass testing sites in Surry County, but this is something we are investigating and hope to be able to offer to our citizens in the future if the need arises,” Simmons said. “Our current priority is to ensure adequate testing availability and easy access to testing for symptomatic residents.” Simmons said.
She added that local primary care offices are testing, and that any person experiencing symptoms should call their primary care physician for guidance before arriving at the provider office.
“If someone does not have a primary care provider, they can call Surry County Health and Nutrition Center, 336-401-8400, and we will be happy to assist them.”
Before opening
Other milestones, or trends, the governor indicated would need to be met before the steps toward lifting the order could come into play, and the current status, include:
– A downward trajectory of confirmed cases sustained over 14 days, or sustained leveling in new cases: Statewide, the trend continues to climb, with more than 600 new cases added to the totals on Thursday. The number of positive cases have been on a generally upward trend since mid-March.
– A 14-day downward trajectory of positive tests as a percentage of total tests: The state peaked in this measurement on April 12 with 17% of those being tested showing as positive, and then matched that percentage on April 16. Since then, the state has shown a general downward trend to 9%, recorded on both April 28 and April 29.
– A 14-day downward trajectory in the number of people currently hospitalized: The state seems to be going the opposite direction on this one, with a high of 551 recorded on April 28 and 546 on April 29. That is a continuation of a generally upward trend stretching back to the beginning of April.
– Tracing capacity: The state has 250 individuals spread across local health departments whose job it is to trace where an infected person may have contracted the virus, and who that person may have come in contact with since then. The governor has said the state wants to double that number.
– Adequate supplies to fill personal protective equipment requests for at least 30 days: The state has enough face shields on hand to meet 36 days worth of demand, enough surgical and procedure masks to last 62 days, and enough gloves for 133 days of service. However, it only has 1 day’s worth of N95 respirators in stock and not enough gowns for a full day’s worth of demand, according to the state health and human services website.
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Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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