ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County, for the 26th of the last 28 days, has added another positive case of the coronavirus.
Sunday’s report from the state Department of Health and Human Services pushed the county’s total to 71. The county Health Department said Sunday there have been 48 recoveries.
There have been two deaths, one in White Oak and one in Tar Heel. The worst day of reports was last Monday, when a death and eight cases were added. Eight cases were also added on April 27 and May 5.
Bladen County has reported 48 cases this month, an average of 2.8 per day. The county has an estimated population of 35,000, and the total cases represent less than 1 percent.
In the DHHS postal breakdown, the ZIP code for Elizabethtown and White Lake has 18 positive cases. There have been 10 in Tar Heel, nine in White Oak, five in Bladenboro, five in Council, three in East Arcadia, two in Clarkton, and one in Kelly. The numbers do not match the state’s county total because not all communities are represented.
DHHS said the state death toll has risen by seven to 659, and cases have increased 530 to 18,512. Cases have risen by 2,005 in the last three reports. The number hospitalized was up 12 to 493. Avery remains the lone county without a reported positive case.
Six of the seven deaths added Sunday were in congregate living settings, pushing the total to 413. Those living places account for 4,201 cases. Outbreaks have been identified at 76 nursing homes, 28 residential care facilities, 18 correctional institutions and seven other facilities. Of those, five are in Columbus, two each in Cumberland and Robeson, and one in Pender.
The state defines an outbreak as two or more.
In adjacent counties, there have been 38 deaths and 1,510 cases. Cumberland has 12 deaths and 468 cases; Columbus has 18 deaths and 235 cases; Robeson has six deaths and 518 cases; Sampson has one death and 244 cases; and Pender has one death and 45 cases.
The state remains under a modified stay at home order, and within the first phase of Gov. Roy Cooper’s plan to slowly reopen the state. The governor and Dr. Mandy Cohen of DHHS say they are monitoring the trends to determine if a second phase can begin later this week.
A combined 13 metropolitan counties have the state’s three largest cities and account for 316 deaths and 9,011 cases, or 47.9 percent of the deaths and 48.7 percent of the cases.
In the Charlotte area, Mecklenburg County has 63 deaths and 2,591 positive cases, Rowan County has 25 deaths and 526 cases, Cabarrus County has 19 deaths and 379 cases, Union County has 16 deaths and 352 cases, and Gaston County has six deaths and 203 cases — a total of 129 deaths and 4,051 cases.
In and near the Triangle area, Durham County has 36 deaths and 986 cases, Wake County has 28 deaths and 1,212 cases, Orange County has 36 deaths and 275 cases, and Johnston County has 17 deaths and 247 cases — a total of 117 deaths and 2,720 cases.
In the interior of the 12-county Piedmont Triad, Guilford County has 47 deaths and 846 cases, Davidson County has 10 deaths and 288 cases, Forsyth County has seven deaths and 651 cases, and Randolph County has six deaths and 455 cases — a total of 70 deaths and 2,240 cases.
The age for those infected has steadily been decreasing. Sunday it was 44 percent for ages 50 and over, down from an April 16 high of 55 percent. There were 5,465 cases then.
Two weeks ago, on May 3, the age group had 49 percent of the cases; two weeks before that on April 19, it was 53 percent for 12,019 cases.
The death rate remains high at 97 percent for those 50 and older.
Fifty percent of the cases are women, 48 percent are men and the rest are unconfirmed. Men account for 52 percent of the deaths.
Bladen County is one of 17 that has a meat-processing plant with an outbreak. In a published report Friday attributing the source to DHHS, there were 1,675 workers at 26 plants who have tested positive for COVID-19. The report, citing county health departments and admitting the number is likely low, said there were 49 new cases last week attributed to workers at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, pushing the total of infections there to at least 125.