Dare Reports 4 COVID-19 Cases on Aug. 11th; Updates on 15 Most Recent
The Dare County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has received four new positive COVID-19 test results today,, bringing the total number now to 384 cases, as of Tuesday (8/11/20) afternoon.
These most recent cases include one male non-resident of Dare in the 17 or under age group and one female non-resident in the 17 or under age group, both of which are currently isolating in Dare, as well as one male non-resident in the 18-24 age group and one female non-resident in the 50-64 age group, both of which have been transferred to isolation in this home counties.
One previously reported resident case has moved from hospitalization to home isolation.
The total COVID-19 positive case count in Dare County is 384, of which 25 are considered active cases in Dare County. Of the 384 cases, 210 are residents and 174 are non-residents.
Since the last Dare County DHHS Update issued Friday, August 7, there have been 15 new positive cases. Of these 15 cases, 3 are residents and 12 are non-residents. The Dare County website has already been updated to reflect all of these cases.
Of the 3 resident cases since Friday, August 7th
- 1 of the cases is symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with family members who tested positive outside of Dare County
- 2 of the cases are symptomatic. It is unclear how these individuals acquired the virus, which indicates community spread.
Of the 12 non-resident cases since Friday, August 7th:
- 5 of the cases are family members, all symptomatic, who acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County.
- 2 of the cases are symptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual who tested positive outside of Dare County
- 4 of the cases are not connected, all symptomatic. All of these individuals acquired the virus by direct contact with individuals who acquired the virus outside of Dare County.
- 1 of the cases is symptomatic, It is unclear how this individual acquired the virus, which indicates community spread.
Contact tracing has been completed on 12 of the cases and direct contacts provided by these individuals have been identified, notified, and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last date of exposure with the positive case. The 14 day quarantine requirement is very important to slowing the spread of the virus as the incubation period for this virus is 2 – 14 days. The DHHS is working to complete contact tracing on the other 3 new cases.
While there was an increase in hospitalizations this past week, there was also saw the smallest increase in new cases since the week of June 15th. Dare County has now had two consecutive weeks of reduced numbers of new cases. This is encouraging, however, we must not interpret it to mean the virus is less prevalent in our community. The county has seen an increase in compliance with practicing the 3Ws which we know are proven tools to help us reduce the spread. Please remain vigilant so we can keep this trend of lower case numbers. Please continue to follow the 3Ws to help protect you, your family, and our community from COVID-19.
- Wear a cloth face covering if you will be with other people.
- Wait 6 feet apart. Avoid close contact.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer
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 749 COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed in Dare County by local healthcare providers. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March to 8,240. There were 21 positive cases between August 3 and August 9. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since testing started in early March decreased again this week for the third week in a row, to 4.59%. The percent positive to total test for the past week alone was 2.8%, which is the lowest weekly percentage since the week of June 22.
Syndromic surveillance of individuals presenting to the emergency department with COVID-19 related symptoms indicated similar activity to the previous week. Local urgent care centers continue to see a high number of patients presenting with COVID like symptoms. These graphs can be found on the dare county website at www.darenc.com/covid19.
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