City of Whiteville issued the following announcement on Dec. 22.
After a drop in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday, COVID-19 in Columbus County is ramping back up again, which is on par with the rest of the state as North Carolinians face the most cases and hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic.
“We’re just seeing the Thanksgiving COVID-19 spike,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in his Dec. 15 press conference.
Columbus County Health Director Kim Smith agreed that last week was the beginning of Thanksgiving’s impact. On Thursday, the health department reported a surge of COVID-19 cases in the county, with 144 residents testing positive in four days and a total of 16 hospitalizations.
“We’ve got more people in the hospital; we have more general population cases,” Smith said, adding that most virus transmission is between family members. “The congregate living facilities, the prisons, the long-term care facilities, they’ve slowed down; they’re getting to be a little bit quiet.”
Only one case from Thursday was from a long-term healthcare facility, according to the county health department.
On Thursday, the health department reported a surge of COVID-19 cases in the county, with 144 residents testing positive in four days and a total of 16 hospitalizations.
“It’s the get-togethers over the holidays,” Smith said. “We’ve had some interesting holiday parties.”
Recommendations for Christmas
Cooper in the press conference noted that the Christmas holiday would make the COVID-19 numbers for cases, hospitalizations and deaths even worse than the Thanksgiving surge.
He, along with Mandy Cohen, the secretary of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, encouraged everyone to follow safety guidelines, including getting tested before gathering, wearing a mask, keeping it small and hosting it outdoors.
“Let’s keep protecting one another,” Cohen said.
Smith agreed. “You need to wear a mask, and you really need to try to keep that six feet of distance,” she said of individuals from different households.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend travelling to a different household for the holiday season.
“With the holidays here, I know it’s hard to imagine missing out on our beloved traditions,” Cooper said. “The more careful we are, the more lives we will save.”
DECEMBER 22, 2020Original source: https://whitevillenc.gov/news/2020/12/22/health-director-warns-against-holiday-get-togethers-as-county-feels-covid-19-effects-from-thanksgiving
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