RALEIGH, N.C. — Once again, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have broken a record in North Carolina, this time breaking past the 5,000 mark.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reported 5,055 people across the Tar Heel State were in the hospital being treated for the virus. This figure broke a record set in the winter of 2021 by 27%. Last winter, fewer than 4,000 people were hospitalized for the virus, and since December 2021 the hospitalization numbers have steadily increased, coinciding with the spread of the omicron variant.
While North Carolina continues to regularly set records for coronavirus patient counts, the average daily patients has slowed since the peak earlier this month.
This mimics similar trends seen earlier in the pandemic; a chart using NCDHHS data shows a similar slowdown at the end of 2020 and into 2021, and toward the end of summer 2021.
NCDHHS is also reporting some potential flattening in average daily cases, a trend that could have several reasons, including reduced viral spread and increased at-home testing, the results of which do not get reported to the state. This trend bears watching.
Since cases were first recorded in 2020, more than 2.3 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded across North Carolina, and more than 24 million tests for the virus have been completed.
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
WCNC Charlotte is part of seven major media companies and other local institutions reporting on and engaging the community around the problems and solutions as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a project of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, which is supported by the Local Media Project, an initiative launched by the Solutions Journalism Network with support from the Knight Foundation to strengthen and reinvigorate local media ecosystems. See all of our reporting at charlottejournalism.org.