With the recent spike in new COVID-19 cases, Lee County government announced Thursday that it would begin reporting new cases twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays.
At the same time, the health department reported confirming 37 new cases since Monday, Oct. 19, bringing the total number of residents who have tested positive to 1,991. Of those, 292 of the cases are considered active, while 1,690 have recovered and 19 people have died.
The Health Department does not provide any identifying information about patients in order to protect privacy, but the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services does provide some demographic data at its COVID dashboard. According to the dashboard, Lee County’s rolling seven day average for new cases is 16.71, down slightly from Monday’s 17.57, while the percent positive rate is 7 percent, up from 6.7 percent on Monday.
“Dashboard data also shows that individuals age 25 to 49 account for the largest percent of county cases at 42 percent; and while those over age 50 account for 33 percent of all county cases, they make up 95 percent of the reported COVID-19 deaths in Lee County,” reads the county’s press release. “Additionally, county cases are fairly evenly distributed between men and women at 48 percent and 52 percent respectively; however, men represent 58 percent of deaths with women at 42 percent.”
The county has reported new cases on a weekly basis since at least July, when numbers began trending downward. Prior to that, new cases had been reported each day and sometimes on weekends. The next update is expected Monday.
The Health Department will hold community testing events at 106 Hillcrest Drive every Tuesday through November from 9 to 11 a.m. by appointment only. To make an appointment, call (984) 368-2112 Monday through Friday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.