The state Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday it is making another round of COVID-19 dashboard changes in preparation of the federal public-health emergency authority expiring May 11.
DHHS said the changes reflect COVID-19 becoming “part of a routine part of public-health and health-care activities.”
“While we continue to see illness and deaths from COVID-19, it is no longer the threat it once was thanks to testing, vaccines and treatment,” said Dr. Susan Kansagra, director of the state Division of Public Health.
“As we evolve our response to the more routine nature of COVID-19 going forward, these indicators will help us monitor our health care capacity from respiratory illness, including COVID-19, and adjust our response if needed.”
Meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases in Forsyth County remained at a near year-long low last week, while there was one additional death disclosed, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday.
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There were 179 cases listed for Forsyth, down from a revised 198 in the previous report.
The most recent time the weekly case count was lower was 179 for the week that ended April 9, 2022.
One of the main changes to the COVID-19 dashboard is that the data will be moved to the N.C. Respiratory Illness Summary Dashboard that also focuses on influenza and respiratory syncytial virus data.
DHHS will continue to provide weekly updates on new COVID-19 and influenza hospital admissions, and wastewater surveillance.
Data on COVID-19 cases and deaths and proportions of variants still will be available through links on the respiratory illness dashboard.
COVID-19 vaccination data will move to a monthly update until NCDHHS tracking ceases on May 31. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to provide tracking.
Meanwhile, DHHS said that reports that will cease as of Friday include: COVID-19 patients presumed to be recovered; hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status; and COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate living settings.
NCDHHS said it is closing its remaining community testing sites on Friday. The department cited the availability of home test kits through free community access points, through Project ACT and the federal program distributing at-home test kits via the U.S. Postal Service.
“North Carolina residents are encouraged to keep several tests on-hand. Check covid19.ncdhhs.gov/FindTests for updates,” DHHS said.
COVID-19 vaccine records will be available online until June 1.
After that, people vaccinated in North Carolina will need to get vaccine records from their provider or pharmacy or local health department in the same way they access their vaccine records now for other immunizations.
Forsyth update
DHHS cautions its weekly totals are subject to revision, including factoring in cases and deaths that occurred weeks or months ago, but were only recently confirmed as related to COVID-19.
About 26.2%, or 47, of the 179 new cases in Forsyth were listed as reinfections by DHHS.
Altogether, Forsyth has had 126,138 confirmed cases and 972 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began in mid-March 2020.
Forsyth health director Joshua Swift and Novant Health Inc. infectious diseases expert Dr. David Priest have stressed that the DHHS weekly case totals include only laboratory confirmed cases, and don’t include most people who determine they are positive with an at-home test.
Forsyth, along with the entire state, is listed in the low category for COVID-19 community spread in the latest update from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Forsyth’s three key metrics were little changed last week.
The COVID-19 community level is determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of new cases in an area.
The latest number of new cases per 100,000 people is 52 in Forsyth, compared with 51 and 60 in the previous two reports.
The rate of new COVID-related hospital admissions per 100,000 people was at 8.8, compared with 8.6 and 11.2 in the previous two reports.
Also, 2.6% of staffed inpatient beds are being used by COVID-19 patients, compared with 2.3% and 2.4% in the previous two weeks.
DHHS reported that hospitals in a 17-county version of the Triad region averaged 66 COVID-19 patients, down from 124 for the week that ended March 18.
COVID-19 statewide
DHHS reported the statewide count for last week was 3,922, compared with a revised 4,047 in the previous report.
The latest weekly count is the lowest since 3,104 for the week that ended April 2, 2022.
Of those North Carolinians with a positive test result in the latest weekly report 886, or 22.6%, were considered re-infected.
North Carolina’s total confirmed case count since the onset of the pandemic is 3.48 million.
There were 15 COVID-related deaths reported statewide last week, along with another eight confirmed from previous weeks, for a total of 28,540.
Last week, the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in North Carolina was at 397, compared with 394 for the week that ended March 18.
The current dominant omicron subvariants have proven to be more contagious, contributing to the surge in hospitalizations. DHHS lists seven active subvariants, down one from the previous report.
The XBB 1.5 subvariant made up 86.3% of new cases from March 5-18, while XBB is 5%.
