Cary COVID Report – October 8, 2020

Cary, NC — COVID-19 cases are on the rise in 39 U.S. states, including North Carolina. Lucky for Cary, there’s better news on the local level.

Cary Holds Steady with Lowest Cases in Wake

Despite having the second highest population of Wake County municipalities, Cary has steadily maintained the county’s fewest per capita COVID-19 cases. Director of Public Safety, Allan Cain, says this has put Cary in a fortunate position among its neighboring municipalities. Here’s a look at where each one ranks in cases per 1,000 residents.

Source: Cary Emergency Operations Center, numbers as of 4 PM on October 1, 2020.

This Week’s Case Numbers in Cary

According to Cary’s EOC stats, positive cases have risen 3.6% during the week of September 24 – October 1, 2020. This increase added 53 new cases to the running total of cumulative positive cases, tallying 1,542 on October 1 at 4 PM.

Of these positives, there are have been 13 deaths across Cary’s 5 major zip codes since the start of the pandemic, accounting for 5% of Wake County’s total death count — 258.

Source: NC Dept. of Health & Human Services

Cary’s Cumulative Deaths, Cases by Zip Code

27511 – 3 deaths / 346 cases
27512 – 1 death / 2 cases
27513 – 4 deaths / 464 cases
27518 – 1 death / 218 cases
27519 – 4 deaths / 516 cases

Statistics by zip code and by county can be searched using the NCDHHS interactive COVID-19 Dashboard.

Wake County Holds Second Highest Case Count in NC

According to the CDC, Wake County COVID cases represent 8.4% of the state’s total cases across 100 counties. This amounts to 17,878 of the cumulative 221,258 cases reported in North Carolina.

Wake’s case count is the second largest in the state, second only to Mecklenburg County’s 29,123, or 13.6% of NC cases.

Across the State: Steady Hospitalizations, Increasing Cases

Governor Roy Cooper signed his newest executive order, taking North Carolina into phase 3 of eased restrictions on October 2, 2020. From the start, Dr. Mandy Cohen, NCDHHS Secretary, has said the progress of these phases were directly correlated to 3 major metrics — cases, tests and hospitalizations.

In the last month, hospitalizations have remained the most steady, staying in the range of about 900-1,000 people in NC hospitals every day. Though, the new daily count of positive cases has continued to trend steadily upward in the last 30 days.

As for testing, from September 9- October 8, those have fluctuated from “low days” of 10,000 tests to “high days” with over 39,000 tests administered across the state.

Source: NCDHHS COVID-19 Dashboard

Rising Cases Across the U.S.

The United States statistics are grim when looked at in totality — 7.55 million confirmed cases and just over 212,000 deaths. Now, 9 months into the pandemic, USA Today reports that 39 states have rising case numbers.

For those searching for a bright side, the Mayo Clinic has been tracking the fatality rate of the virus and the rate of tests coming back positive — both have been steadily declining since August.

Around the World

Circles on this Johns Hopkins map show the hubs of active cases of COVID-19 across the globe.

The global, ongoing case count sits at 36.3 million with global deaths reaching over 1 million. More than one-fifth of these deaths have been in the United States.

Highest Contributors to Global Death Toll

These are 10 countries around the world with the highest COVID-19 deaths reported as of October 8, 2020 at 4 PM.

United States – 212,420
Brazil – 148,228
India – 105,526
Mexico – 82,726
United Kingdom – 42,682
Italy – 36,083
Peru – 33,009
Spain – 32,688
France – 32,539
Iran – 27,888

Source: Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard

Story from staff reports.

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