Staff Report
news@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — For the second straight week, Rowan County has set a record for a single-day increase in COVID-19 cases.

On Thursday, an additional 267 cases were reported. Last week, the record had been set at 166 additional cases.

At a virtual Rowan County Board of Health meeting Wednesday night, Rowan County Health Department Nursing Director Meredith Littell said testing has surged duringthe holidays, adding that Rowan County tested 426 people alone on Monday.

Additionally, a second update on Thursday — since county health officials won’t update the data hub today — showed an additional 46 cases reported in Rowan County.

That brings the total to 8,323 cases since March, with 31.8% of those cases currently positive and an additional 15 recoveries reported. Recoveries now total 5,515.

Autumn Care reported a COVID-19 death on Thursday. The facility has now seen 14 deaths and is currently in an outbreak. Deaths in Rowan County now total 164, with an average age of 79.

A total of 24 Rowan Countians are being hospitalized for COVID-19. The average age of all 332 hospitalizations to date is 65.

State health officials didn’t update the COVID-19 dashboard on Thursday or today.

Each Thursday, county health officials typically update the county’s current rate of tests returning positive, as well as the number of hospital beds and ventilators being used for COVID-19 patients. But county spokesperson TJ Brown said the county relies on a state report to accurately reflect those numbers, and the county has not yet received that information.

The CDC reported an additional 221,408 cases across the U.S. on Christmas Eve, totaling 18.39 million cases since January. A total of 325,096 Americans have died from the virus.