North Carolina reports more than 1,400 new coronavirus cases; Iredell climbs to 419 | Local News

Iredell County has 419 cases as of Saturday, according to the state. A total of six people have died.

Among neighboring counties, Mecklenburg continues to lead the state with 6,862 cases and 119 deaths. Rowan County has 862 cases with 37 deaths, Cabarrus has 686 cases with 24 deaths, Wilkes has 542 cases with six deaths, Catawba has 399 cases with 10 deaths, Yadkin has 233 cases with four deaths, Davie has 134 with two deaths, Lincoln has 125 cases and Alexander has 48.

The Iredell County Health Department updates cases Monday through Friday, so the current breakdown by region across the county is not updated for Saturday’s cases.

Statewide, 45 percent of the cases are in the 25-49 age range. Twenty-one percent are among those 50-64, 11 percent among those 18-24, 9 percent among those 17 and younger, 8 percent among those 75 and older and 7 percent among those 65-74.

Fifty-one percent of the cases are among females.

The Iredell County Health Department reported that there are five confirmed cases at North Iredell High School. Earlier this week the school was closed, then Thursday afternoon the Health Department defined the coronavirus cases at the school as a cluster.

“At this time, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services considers five or more cases in a school or child-care facility to be a cluster,” it stated in a release. “NCDHHS refers to this as a “cluster” rather than an “outbreak” because of the setting, as it is difficult to accurately determine how transmission occurred and whether it occurred within the setting or from within the broader community.

The department is working with Iredell-Statesville School administrators to “conduct contact tracing to identify persons who may have come into contact with an infected person. The administration continues to implement strict infection control precautions to prevent any further spread of COVID-19,” the Health Department stated in a release. On Friday it confirmed it was five cases.

On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper and state officials asked people to follow guidelines as the state numbers began to rise.

“This isn’t a second wave. This, for us, is a first,” said Mandy Cohen, secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Associated Press. “I think it reminds us that this virus is here, and we have to learn to live with this virus because we don’t have a vaccine, we don’t have a cure. This is a matter of how can we live with this virus so we don’t see any spike.”

Part of the growth in cases comes from the increases in tests, which reached its second consecutive single-day high on Friday with 21,442 tests completed. But while more tests may yield more positive cases, the proportion of tests that have come back positive has also increased.

Another driving force behind the uptick is residents traveling throughout the state to newly reopened businesses without following the recommended public safety guidelines.

Giselle Corbie-Smith, director of UNC’s Center for Health Equity Research, warns “it would be dangerous to underestimate how much of this pandemic is still raging on.”

Crystal Wiley Cené, an associate professor of general medicine and clinical epidemiology at UNC, fears more pain lies ahead.

“This is concerning. There’s no question about it,” she said of the rise in cases. “I think all public health experts and modelers of this pandemic, we will expect to see a second wave of this that may be much worse than this first wave. Everyone is waiting with bated breath, hanging our hats on a vaccine.”

North Carolina public health officials have identified eight counties running the greatest risk of rapid spread. They include the large urban counties of Wake, Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Durham, mid-sized Johnston and Alamance and smaller-sized Lee and Duplin.