ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County has recorded the 15th death related to the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The total was increased Friday in reports from both the state Department of Health and Human Services, and the Bladen County Health Department. DHHS changed its reporting method for virus cases, and now counts antigen tests. The county made that change a week earlier.
The county didn’t send out a Thursday report and Friday’s added 29 cases to the Wednesday total. The state’s Friday report added 56 cases to the Thursday report. Both now count 893 cases for the county.
The Health Department says 816 people have recovered, nine are hospitalized and 62 cases are considered active.
Previously, North Carolina had been one of about 20 that did not include antigen testing in its totals.
In Friday evening’s biweekly listing for outbreaks, Bladen East Health and Rehab added three cases to reach 27 cases among residents. There remains 16 among staff. Three residents have died. On the cluster report, there was no change for Emereau: Bladen Charter School; one staff member and five children are listed.
The number of cases went up 14 in the DHHS postal ZIP code listing for Elizabethtown and White Lake, and one death was added, and cases went up 12 in Bladenboro.
The ZIP code report lists 268 cases in Elizabethtown and White Lake since the pandemic began; 130 in Bladenboro; 96 in East Arcadia; 87 in Clarkton; 67 in White Oak; 60 in Tar Heel; 19 each in Kelly and Council; and 10 in Dublin.
The death count is at six in the ZIP for Elizabethtown and White Oak. There has been one each in East Arcadia, Dublin, Bladenboro, Tar Heel, White Oak and Kelly. The other three are not linked to a ZIP code unique to Bladen County.
Friday’s totals from the state included:
• 3,409 deaths, up 53 from Thursday’s noon report.
• 204,331 lab-confirmed cases, up 6,142. This is high increase is due to now counting antigen tests.
• 903 hospitalized, up one.
• 2,870,191 tests, up 32,863.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.
In adjacent counties to Bladen, there have been 240 deaths and 14,341 cases. Cumberland has 76 deaths and 5,389 cases; Robeson has 75 deaths and 4,455 cases; Columbus has 56 deaths and 1,357 cases; Sampson has 28 deaths and 2,200 cases; and Pender has five deaths and 940 cases.
Congregate living settings in North Carolina have totaled 1,781 deaths and 22,458 positive cases. Outbreaks have been identified and are active at 217 nursing homes, 89 residential care facilities, 36 correctional institutions and seven other facilities. Of those, 10 are in Cumberland, four in Sampson, three each in Columbus and Robeson, and one each in Bladen and Pender.
Cumberland has two clusters, and Bladen and Sampson have one each.
With 93 percent of the state’s hospitals reporting, DHHS says there is availability of 74 percent of the ventilators, 21 percent of the intensive care unit beds and 24 percent of all hospital beds.
In the personal protective equipment category, all categories are at more than one year.
A combined 13 metropolitan counties have the state’s three largest cities and account for 42.7 percent of the deaths (1,455) and 48.3 percent of the cases (98,638).
In the Charlotte area, Mecklenburg County has 347 deaths and 28,416 positive cases, Gaston County has 81 deaths and 5,087 cases, Rowan County has 94 deaths and 3,325 cases, Cabarrus County has 68 deaths and 3,966 cases, and Union County has 58 deaths and 4,750 cases — a total of 648 deaths and 45,544 cases.
In and near the Triangle area, Wake County has 239 deaths and 17,416 cases, Durham County has 93 deaths and 7,666 cases, Johnston County has 56 deaths and 4,460 cases, and Orange County has 55 deaths and 2,636 cases — a total of 443 deaths and 32,178 cases.
In the interior of the 12-county Piedmont Triad, Guilford County has 180 deaths and 8,437 cases, Forsyth County has 98 deaths and 6,956 cases, Randolph County has 52 deaths and 2,809 cases, and Davidson County has 34 deaths and 2,714 cases — a total of 364 deaths and 20,916 cases.
According to the coronavirus tracker of Johns Hopkins University, available on BladenJournal.com, more than 7 million confirmed cases and 203,000 deaths are counted in the U.S. The second-highest case total is in India, with more than 5.8 million.
There are more than 32.3 million cases worldwide, with more than 985,000 deaths.
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