18.9% of individuals ages 18-64 do not have health insurance.45.0% of county renters are cost burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their monthly income on housing.4.1% have grandparents living with grandchildren under age 18 and.2.4% live in crowded housing, meaning they have more than one person per room.For instance, in South Africa, there was a sharp increase in cases with the omicron variant and a sharp decline.The characteristics below are factors that may be related to SARS-CoV-2 transmission, increase the risk of severe COVID-19, and/or make individuals vulnerable to the economic and social impacts of the pandemic. WRAL News investigative data journalist Ali Ingersoll said another way to predict the surge is by looking at the data from places around the world. 'It is still going to be a challenging few weeks.' 'I expect at least some parts of the country to begin peaking pretty soon, and nationwide, for us to be on a downward trajectory by early February,' he said. McClellan said perhaps late January or early February is when he expects numbers to begin to improve. 'What we will see happen sometime, I predict in the next couple weeks, is those rates of case growth will slow down, the test positivity rate will go down, and that will be the sign we are coming up on the peak,' he added. 'We still have weeks ahead of us but not many weeks with this level of surge,' said McClellan. UNC Health reported more than 650 employees, or around 1% of all employees, were absent on Tuesday due to a COVID-19 exposure or a positive COVID-19 test.Įven with hundreds of staff members out, only nine hospitals reported to the state that they were experiencing a 'critical staffing shortage.' The state Department of Health and Human Services does not disclose which nine hospitals are experiencing a staff shortage.įirst come the COVID cases, then come the deathsĪs area hospitals grapple with staffing shortages and surges in cases, health experts said it could still be several weeks before North Carolina peaches its peak from the omicron variant. Every patient in the Duke Health system on the highest level of life support is unvaccinated, she said. 'We are concerned both for patient care and for staffing,' Kinsley said.ĩ0% of patients hospitalized in Duke Health's ICU units are unvaccinated, Pickett said.

16, 2021, but that number could increase in the next few weeks. As of now, the average number of hospitalizations is 36% lower than at the peak on Jan. While North Carolina's case counts skyrocket, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remains relatively low when compared to both the surge in hospitalizations last winter and fall. As of Wednesday, 70% of all adults in North Carolina are fully vaccinated and 63% of all residents age five and up have their shots. North Carolina has seen a slight increase in its vaccination rate.

on Thursday, a spokesman for UNC Health said all COVID-19 patients on ventilators in the ICU were unvaccinated. At WakeMed and UNC hospitals, 100% of COVID-19 patients on ventilators are unvaccinated, they said.Īt all WakeMed hospitals, only 1 in 10 ICU patients are fully vaccinated, and at Duke, all the patients on ECMO, a form of life support used for only the sickest patients, are unvaccinated.Īs of 4:40 p.m. Getting vaccinated and boosted is the key to staying out of hospitals or becoming seriously ill from coronavirus, all three physicians urged.

The ER is not the place to come for a coronavirus test unless you are seriously ill and need emergency care, all doctors agreed.Īsymptomatic people or those with mild symptoms will add to the strain of emergency departments and will likely endure very long waits, they said. Chris DeRienzo, system chief medical officer for WakeMed, said all of the health system's emergency departments have set records for capacity in five of the last 10 days.ĭeRienzo called the number of emergency room patients 'truly crushing' and said around 40% of patients who show up at the ER either have COVID-19 symptoms or are there to be tested for COVID-19.

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