By Natalie Anderson
natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Rowan County, with at least 50 cases having been reported each day for nearly two weeks and 19% of total cases being currently active.

County health officials have reported 111 cases since Saturday, with 61 added on Sunday and 50 cases added to the data hub on Monday. That amounts to 5,682 total cases of COVID-19, with 1,091 of those currently active and 4,460 of those cases recovered. Monday marked the 13th day in a row that the county had reported 50 or more COVID-19 cases in a single day.

Last week, COVID-19 case increases reached record highs when health officials reported the county’s highest single-day increase in cases (100) on Thursday after reporting the fourth-highest increase since March (75) earlier in the week. And since Oct. 26, there hasn’t been a day with fewer than 10 positive COVID-19 cases reported.

No new deaths were reported on Monday. All but 51 have occurred among eight local congregate care facilities. As of Monday, 22 Rowan Countians are being hospitalized for COVID-19, with an average age of 64 among the 303 total local hospitalizations.

Those statistics put Rowan County 16th in the state for most reported cases as it’s tied with Buncombe County for sixth in the state for most reported deaths.

The average age among all cases is currently 44.1, with the plurality of cases, or 27.33%, among those aged 18-35.

As of last week, 73 of the 106 available hospital beds and one of the 61 available ventilators are currently in use.

State health officials on Monday reported 2,734 additional cases of COVID-19 across the state, which totals 364,512 cases since March after 5.3 million completed tests. Monday’s rate of tests returning positive is 9.5%, but the overall rate is 6.9%. The lives of 5,261 North Carolinians have been claimed by the virus, and 1,966 people are currently being hospitalized for it.

Of the total number of cases, 86.7% have recovered.

State data on Monday showed Black North Carolinians make up 22% of all reported cases and Hispanic North Carolinians comprise 27% of all cases. Additionally, 61% of cases are among white North Carolinians, while American Indian/Alaskan Native residents and Asian/Pacific Islander residents each comprise 2% of cases, respectively.

The plurality, or 40%, of all cases are among those aged 25-49. Adults aged 50-64 comprise the next-highest age bracket at 20%. More than half, or 53%, of all cases in the state have been among women.

White North Carolinians comprise 63% of all COVID-19 deaths in the state, Black North Carolinians account for 28% of all deaths. Hispanic residents comprise 9% of all deaths. Nearly 60% of deaths have been among those older than 75 years old.

Of the 1,966 North Carolinians currently being hospitalized across the state, the plurality (555) of those are within the Triad Healthcare Preparedness Coalition, which is the region to which Rowan County belongs. Other counties in that region include Davie, Davidson, Forsyth, Iredell and Guilford counties. Davie County is the only one with fewer than 5,000 cases of COVID-19 reported, while Guilford reports more than 16,000.

In that region, 439 ICU beds, 242 ventilators and 3,387 inpatient beds are currently in use.

The CDC reported 152,608 additional cases across the U.S. on Monday, which totals 13.3 million cases since January. Additionally, 266,051 Americans have now died from the virus.

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.