Coronavirus: Three Bladenboro schools on state cluster listing

BLADENBORO — The state listing for coronavirus clusters in schools now includes three in Bladen County.

Bladenboro Middle was joined in this week’s listing, posted each Tuesday, by Bladenboro Primary and West Bladen High.

Numbers are cumulative from varying points and do not indicate active. The state defines outbreaks as two or more cases at congregate living settings, and clusters as five or more at child care facilities or schools. Bladenboro Middle is listed with 19 cases among students and one staff member, Bladenboro Primary two students and three staff, and West Bladen six students and no staff.

There are no outbreaks in the county, per the report definition.

The Bladen County Health Department, in its Wednesday report, listed four people hospitalized among 67 cases considered active. There has not been a death logged since Oct. 27. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 5,523 recoveries and 5,685 positive tests.

Statewide since the pandemic began, there have been 18,955 deaths and 1,562,663 positive tests, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services report on Thursday. It also listed 1,473 hospitalized.

The county and the state do not update numbers in relation to false positive tests.

Community transmission of the coronavirus in Bladen County is high, according to Thursday’s update from the CDC. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website counted 69 active cases. There are no counties in the state with the low or moderate transmission level, only seven substantial, and 93 high. The period measured is Dec. 1 to Tuesday for case rate, and Nov. 28 to Saturday for percent positivity.

Bladen County has 45.7 percent (14,959) of the total population fully vaccinated and 55.3 percent (18,079) partially vaccinated. Of those age 12 and up, the numbers climb to 52.3 percent and 63.1 percent, respectively.

With 93 percent of the state’s hospitals reporting, DHHS says there is availability of 68 percent of the ventilators, 16 percent of the intensive care unit beds, and 19 percent of all hospital beds.

The DHHS postal ZIP code report lists 1,800 cases in Elizabethtown and White Lake since the pandemic began; 1,634 in Bladenboro; 735 in Clarkton; 554 in East Arcadia; 319 in White Oak; 283 in Tar Heel; 137 in Council; and 122 in Kelly.

There are 34 fatalities listed for the ZIP in Bladenboro; 32 in Elizabethtown and White Lake; nine in East Arcadia; eight in Clarkton; five in Tar Heel; four in Council; three in White Oak; and one in Kelly. The Dublin ZIP code disappeared from the state report on Jan. 29.

In adjacent counties to Bladen, there have been 1,416 deaths and 105,914 cases. Cumberland has had 500 deaths and 48,618 cases; Robeson has had 443 deaths and 25,811 cases; Columbus has had 230 deaths and 10,423 cases; Sampson has had 141 deaths and 11,719 cases; and Pender has had 102 deaths and 9,343 cases.

A combined 13 metropolitan counties have the state’s three largest cities and account for 36.7 percent of the deaths (6,946) and 45.3 percent of the cases (707,390) since the pandemic began.

In the Charlotte area, Mecklenburg County has had 1,294 deaths and 165,159 positive cases, Gaston County has had 636 deaths and 42,601 cases, Rowan County has had 480 deaths and 27,535 cases, Union County has had 374 deaths and 38,911 cases, Cabarrus County has had 353 deaths and 35,054 cases — a total of 3,137 deaths and 309,260 cases.

In and near the Triangle area, Wake County has had 911 deaths and 137,145 cases, Johnston County has had 343 deaths and 34,237 cases, Durham County has had 267 deaths and 36,471 cases, and Orange County has had 111 deaths and 12,493 cases — a total of 1,632 deaths and 220,346 cases.

In the interior of the 12-county Piedmont Triad, Guilford County has had 929 deaths and 71,892 cases, Forsyth County has had 592 deaths and 55,241 cases, Randolph County has had 332 deaths and 23,157 cases, and Davidson County has had 324 deaths and 27,494 cases — a total of 2,177 deaths and 177,784 cases.

According to the coronavirus tracker of Johns Hopkins University, available on BladenJournal.com, more than 49.5 million confirmed cases and 793,000 deaths are counted in the U.S. The second-highest case total is in India, with more than 34.6 million.

There have been more than 268.1 million cases worldwide, with more than 5.2 million deaths.