<p>Smith</p>

Smith

LUMBERTON — Cases of the novel coronavirus saw a major spike in Robeson County this week, with 1,317 new confirmed cases reported by the Robeson County Health Department between Dec. 31 and Friday.

While this data is over a nine-day period, since no report was given by the Health Department New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, the 1,317 cases still shows a major increase in cases. There were 620 reported from Dec. 24 to Dec. 30, and the county’s previous seven-day high was the 682 cases for the period Dec. 12-18.

There were 332 new cases between Wednesday and Friday.

“This week’s cases mirrored the expectations for the season — that groups would gather and masking and distancing would not be in vogue,” said Bill Smith, county Health Department director. “The result is the largest one-week total to date. However, the next couple of weeks may rival it.

The safest bet is to vaccinate when it’s your turn. Remember only Phase 1A (at-risk health workers) and Phase 1B, Group 1 (persons 75 years old or older) can be vaccinated at this time.”

There were eight virus-related deaths reported in Robeson County from Dec. 31 to Friday, bringing the county’s pandemic death toll to 157.

The county’s positivity rate increased to 15% this past week and is “tentatively” more than 17% for this week, Smith said.

UNC Health Southeastern, which reported Wednesday that its hospital is at maximum capacity for bed usage, said Friday there are 53 virus-positive patients in isolation at the hospital, with four potential positives under investigation. This is up from 48 virus-positive patients reported Dec. 31.

Forty-four employees are under quarantine because of potential exposure, up from 25 on Dec. 31.

The first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 1,620 people in Robeson County, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday in its weekly vaccinations report. Of these people, 68 have received the second dose. There have been 151,902 first doses of the vaccine administered statewide, with 9,115 receiving the second dose.

“Vaccinations have moved into a population that enthusiastically embraced it — the residents 75 years old and older,” Smith said. “Southeastern set up a site for vaccinating, while the Health Department deployed over half of its workforce toward this activity.

“There has been significant national discussion about the lack of vaccine actually making it into someone’s arm and they have used that fact to paint the system as dysfunctional. It is never mentioned that vaccine arrived at the holiday season and there is a natural aversion to celebrating Christmas while suffering from side effects — particularly when it’s something that can be avoided a week or two. Along those same lines, many organizations had staff out of place at that time. Additionally, the initial population to be vaccinated has shown a general reluctance to have it done — however, Phase 1B has several groups that are eagerly awaiting the vaccine and the vaccination rates will climb significantly.”

Robeson County remains categorized as red, for critical community spread, in the state’s county alert system as of an update issued Tuesday. Every other county in the southeastern region of the state is also categorized as red.

There are now a record 84 red counties statewide, with 12 orange (substantial community spread) and four yellow (significant community spread).

Statewide, 63,229 new cases were reported by NCDHHS between Jan. 1 and Friday, bringing the total for the pandemic to 602,774 cases. There have been 580 virus-related deaths reported since Jan. 1, bringing the pandemic total to 7,328.

A record 3,960 virus-related hospitalizations were reported in the state as of Friday.