RALEIGH, N.C. _ Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday he spoke to Vice President Mike Pence about the state's climbing coronavirus infections and the need for testing.
The state's Department of Health and Human Services "is pushing assistance to local health departments, especially in the counties experiencing the highest growth _ Alamance, Duplin, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Johnston, Lee, Mecklenburg and Wake are of particular concern," Cooper said Monday in a news briefing.
Cooper said he and Pence talked last weekend about increased testing, especially in those counties.
While hospitals have enough beds for COVID-19 patients, "that can change really quickly," Cooper said. The state is monitoring hospital capacity.
Sunday marked the second-highest increase in new cases, at 1,443. The highest was 1,768, the number of new cases announced Friday.
Infections have been climbing since mid-May, and crowds have been gathering at race tracks, at protests, and in lines for restaurants.
"That kind of behavior in crowds really worries the health experts and epidemiologists and why we continue to tell people to avoid being in crowds if you can," Cooper said Monday.
Cooper said he would announce early next week whether the state would continue to loosen restrictions on businesses and leisure activities that were meant to curb viral spread.
"We believe we can get a handle on this," he said. "Let's pull together so we can continue to move forward in easing restrictions."
Only certain businesses are required to report outbreaks: congregate living facilities, day care centers and schools.
Other businesses are encouraged to report outbreaks to local health offices, DHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said in Monday's news briefing.
"We work very closely with our local health departments to try to understand how the virus is spreading across our state," she said. "We've talked many times of how we track those outbreaks. ... But those outbreaks are not consistently reported. There are only a few required by law _ congregate living settings, child care and others _ that are required to report to us.
"So we will often do the detective work through our tracing, or an entity may proactively identify themselves and say, hey, we have a number of cases in the setting and the local health department will work with us and help us understand what to do next.
"Those are good. We want folks to get in touch with your local health department if you are seeing more than two cases, which is an outbreak, or five, which is a cluster.
"We want to make sure people are taking the proper protocols, whether that's additional deep cleaning or temporary closure or what have you that needs to be done in order to make sure we don't see further viral spreads."
Cohen said businesses are encouraged to follow all the precautions laid out in "all the very detailed guidance" being provided.
"And if you do see the virus spreading in your place of business please do call the local health department," she said.
Cohen said it was important to connect restaurant crowds to infections in long-term care facilities. More virus circulating in communities means that people who work in long-term care facilities can bring the virus back to their workplaces, she said.
Nursing homes have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. As of Friday afternoon, there were 3,961 cases associated with nursing homes and 589 deaths.
The state plans universal testing of all nursing home residents and staff, not just those homes where people have tested positive.
More than 45,100 people in the state have had lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported Monday.
There were 983 newly reported cases Monday, and 797 patients hospitalized with 73% of hospitals reporting.
The 1,443 new cases reported Sunday marked the second-highest increase in new cases _ the highest was 1,768 announced Friday. The North Carolina DHHS reported Monday that 29,219 people in North Carolina are presumed recovered from coronavirus infections.
Forecast models complied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict that North Carolina is one of six states were COVID-19 deaths are expected to jump between June 8 and July 4, McClatchy News reported. DHHS reported 1,118 COVID-19 deaths Monday since the first in March.
