At Friday's Health and Human Services Board Data Subcommittee meeting, COVID metrics and how they're affecting the county were discussed.
The county’s Pandemic Operations team gave an update on staffing up — the PanOps team is tasked with providing data and trends for New Hanover County, along with a host of other pandemic-related tasks that have, for the last two years, been on the shoulders of other county employees.
The subcommittee discussed whether it needed to continue meeting — some board members argued the PanOps team had “stepped up” and provided what was needed.
The subcommittee also reviewed the latest Covid-19 data.
- Between Tuesday and Friday morning, in New Hanover County 1,661 people have tested positive.
- The current county positivity rate is 38.8% – the State is at 30.4%.
- At New Hanover Regional Medical Center there are currently 11 patients in the ICU or on ventilators.
- Vaccination cover is at 62%— fully vaccinated.
Board member Dr. Delma Kinlaw brought up the issue of “incidental” cases, where patients are admitted to the hospital for other health issues and only after being tested in the hospital, come back positive. There was pushback, however, with members saying New Hanover County is not equipped to provide this kind of data.