Dare County Reports 21 COVID-19 Cases May 18-24

Posted By on May 25, 2021

The Dare County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reports 21 new cases of COVID-19 May 18-24.

The total number of new positive cases reported in Dare County over the past week was 21. Aside from the previous week’s low of 13 new cases, this past week had the lowest number of new cases since September of 2020.

Since the last report on 5/18, there have been 21 new COVID-19 cases. Of these 21 new cases:

  • 17 (80%) are symptomatic

  • 19 (91%) acquired the virus by direct contact with an unvaccinated individual or individuals who were positive for COVID-19.

  • Currently, there are only 10 active COVID-19 cases among residents of Dare County.

COVID-19 Vaccine

All individuals 12 years of age and over are encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccination. COVID-19 vaccinations are readily available at numerous locations throughout the county including the health department and many area pharmacies like: Walgreens, Sunshine Family Pharmacy, Island Pharmacy, Bear Drugs, and Beach Pharmacy.

Since late December, Dare DHHS has provided 16,235 initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and have fully vaccinated 16,449 individuals. Dare County’s first dose vaccination rate is 51.1% and a fully vaccinated rate of 48.4%.

In addition to preventing serious illness and death, getting your COVID-19 vaccine prevents you from being quarantined if you are exposed to a person who tests positive for COVID-19, as long as you remain symptom free. While there have been six breakthrough cases of COVID-19 reported in Dare County, there have been no reports of serious illness or death of anyone in Dare who has been fully vaccinated.

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 309 COVID-19 diagnostic tests reported in Dare County. This brings the total number of tests performed since early March of last year to 39,466.  There were 22 positive cases between May 17 and May 23. The percent of positive tests to overall tests in Dare County since we started testing in March 2020 decreased to 8.15%. The percent of positive tests to total tests for the past week increased to 6.77%. Syndromic surveillance of individuals presenting with COVID like symptoms to the emergency department and urgent care centers continues to show low levels of activity. These graphs can be found on the Dare County website at www.darenc.com/covid19.

“Non-resident” cases are those who do not have a Dare County address listed on their identification card, including visitors, non-resident property owners, individuals living and working in Dare County for the summer, and those who may have recently moved to the area and have not yet been able to update their identification card.

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Posted by Matt Artz

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