SALISBURY — State health officials last week released data breaking down cases and deaths by vaccination status as the number of daily positives inched closer to all-time highs.

The data show unvaccinated people were 4.4 times more likely to catch COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. For teenagers, in particular, unvaccinated people were 6.3 times more likely to test positive.

For deaths, vaccination status results in an even starker difference — a multiple of 23 for those under 65.

In the four week period ending Aug. 21, 187 unvaccinated people under the age of 65 died from COVID-19 in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. In the same period, eight vaccinated people younger than 65 died from COVID-19.

Data show 215 unvaccinated and 65 vaccinated North Carolinians older than 65 died from COVID-19 in the four week period ending Aug. 21

“The vast majority of people dying with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. If you are not vaccinated, please don’t wait until it is too late,” said N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen. “The authorized and approved vaccines have been through rigorous clinical trials and met scientific standards. Millions of North Carolinians have been safely vaccinated.”

NCDHHS officials said last week’s data release came as the state hit an all-time highs for people on ventilators and in intensive care.

Statewide case increases continue to rise, but haven’t topped a daily increase of 11,581 reported in early January.

Since the start of the pandemic, 14,319 North Carolinians have died from COVID-19.

In Rowan County, daily case increases appear to be at or just shy of all-time highs, with 271 positives reported Friday and 264 on Thursday. In the previous two weeks, 2,013 people in Rowan County have tested positive for COVID-19.

In an opinion column published today in the Post, Rowan County Board of Health Chair Dari Caldwell, the former president of Rowan Medical Center, encouraged people to adopt a layered approach to fighting COVID-19, including vaccines and mask wearing.

“We are a community first, fighting together against COVID-19 and not each other,” Caldwell wrote.

The deaths of six Rowan County residents were added to the COVID-19 toll last week, bringing the community to 338 since the start of the pandemic. The vaccination status of the new deaths wasn’t immediately available.

At the end of last week, 856 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Rowan County’s region, the Triad Healthcare Preparedness Coalition. Among them, were 221 people in intensive care and 298 using ventilators.