Nearly 100K COVID Cases In Mecklenburg: Davidson Update

DAVIDSON, NC — The spread of coronavirus in Mecklenburg County remains stable with about 5 percent of COVID-19 tests in the county coming up positive, county health officials said Friday.

While coronavirus metrics remain at a level not seen in the county since last summer, infection rates are increasing slightly, according to Mecklenburg County Public Health. During the past week, Mecklenburg County reported a daily average of 179 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from the 14-day average of 167 cases.

Overall, nearly 100,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the county, along with 903 deaths.

In Davidson, at least 1,487 cases and 15 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed as of March 19, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data. The tally represents an increase of 41 new cases in Davidson since March 8.

Statewide, North Carolina reported 1,915 new cases in the span of a day, increasing the number of confirmed cases to 893,229, according to DHHS. The state's positivity rate was 4 percent, as 970 residents remained hospitalized. As of Friday, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of at least 11,805 North Carolinians, DHHS said.

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As of March 19, North Carolina had administered nearly 3.6 million doses of vaccine. In Mecklenburg County, nearly 275,000 doses of vaccine had been administered.

"The number of people we have vaccinated will definitely make a difference as we move forward," Harris said. "It will take some time, but we're hoping as more vaccines become available, more people will take advantage of that."

As of Thursday, almost 15 percent of adults in Mecklenburg County were vaccinated.

"That is a number that we need to pay attention to," she said. "We've got a long way to go to have enough people vaccinated to make individuals feel comfortable to go out in public."

About 70 to 85 percent of the community would need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, Harris said.

"I don't know that we'll ever have a cut point in time where we say 'it's over,' but I think there will come a time when we are much more comfortable than we are, and maybe moving into a maintenance phase around this virus," she said.

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