“I know that we have turned the corner on this pandemic,” Cooper said at a news conference, where he announced how his administration will modify its approach to the pandemic. “We believe that the worst is over. Today is about how we approach the future, the plan for preparing, informing and also encouraging individual responsibility and empowerment here.”
Starting on March 23, the state will adjust how it reports COVID-19 data and will reallocate resources as the disease becomes an “endemic” part of everyday life, much like the common flu.
“Data will continue to drive our response as it has through the entire pandemic, but some metrics no longer measure the moment,” said Kody Kinsley, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. “Some that you are used to seeing, like the percentage of positive tests, will no longer be our focus.”
After reporting COVID-19 data on a mostly daily basis for much of the past two years, the state will now present metrics for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.
The state’s COVID-19 dashboard also will change to represent seven key metrics of the state’s revised pandemic response. The site will feature wastewater sampling data, the percentage of people going to emergency departments with COVID-like illness, hospital admissions for COVID-19, total case trends, booster rates, COVID-19 variants currently present in North Carolina and the level of community spread as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The dashboard no longer will include contact tracing data and will report case data and positive tests on a weekly basis.
Daily cases dropping as ‘we turn the page on the pandemic’
Cooper’s announcement comes almost exactly two years after his executive order to revert to in-person schooling and other parts of the state started to shut down.
“At the beginning, our country was short of the most basic tools,” Cooper said. “...We’ve got our children back in school. We kept our economy going. We saved lives. And now we turn the page on the pandemic knowing that we have the tools for people and businesses to make the right choices for themselves.”
COVID-19 trends in North Carolina have improved following a holiday surge. Daily cases have plummeted. After reaching a pandemic-record of 44,833 new cases recorded on Jan. 13, recent figures have teetered around 1,000. Three times this week, the state reported fewer than 1,000 new cases per day, including just 373 cases on Monday, before jumping back to 1,519 new cases on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations are also down, with 799 people hospitalized throughout the state as of Tuesday. A month earlier, on Feb. 15, the state was reporting 2,870 hospitalizations.
The percentage of COVID tests coming back positive has also declined from a seven-day average above 17% in mid-February to approximately 4% now.
But Kinsley noted that data on the number of new cases no longer presents an accurate picture of COVID-19 because home tests are not reported to the state.
Instead, he said it’s important to look at metrics like booster rates, hospital admissions and wastewater testing as an “early indicator of increases in other metrics.”
Changes in mask policies
The declining levels of COVID spread and burden on hospitals have prompted local officials in the Triangle to lift indoor mask mandates that were put in place last August, as the delta variant began to spread across the state. Wake County and the City of Raleigh were the first to do away with their mandates, effective Feb. 25, followed by Durham (and the City of Durham) and Orange counties, both of which removed the requirements beginning March 7.
After allowing a statewide mask mandate to expire last July, Cooper focused on giving cities, counties and school districts the liberty to enact their own mandates, based on the individual levels of spread in different parts of the state. In February, however, the governor said that declines in key metrics and easy access to vaccines meant that local governments and school districts that still had masking requirements in place should lift the restrictions.
Despite the pandemic’s positive trajectory, Kinsley encouraged North Carolinians to be diligent in minimizing spread. High vaccination and booster rates are essential in mitigating a pandemic resurgence, he said.
“While COVID is now a threat we can manage, it has not disappeared,” Kinsley said. “We will remain vigilant, and we will work to equip you with the information and tools you need to make choices that are best for you and your family.”
Officials outline future of NC’s economic recovery
N.C. Commerce Secretary Machelle Sanders spoke at Thursday’s press conference about the state’s economic recovery and recent investments by major companies that are poised to create thousands of jobs.
Earlier this week, state economists announced that North Carolina had returned to the level of employment and gross domestic product it had attained prior to the pandemic. Over the course of 2021, the unemployment rate fell by 1.6%, while participation in the labor force grew by 0.5%, according to a Commerce Department news release.
Sanders noted that a series of investments announced by companies like Apple, Fujifilm and Toyota would create thousands of new jobs and plug more than $10 billion in capital investment into the state.
Acknowledging that there is more work to be done, however, Sanders discussed the department’s “First In Talent” plan, a four-year economic development plan unveiled last year that is intended to help workers become more competitive in the job market, and match them with businesses in need of skilled employees.
The plan calls for investing in education and childcare, to allow more people to pursue post-secondary degrees and preparing businesses to attract more applicants.
“The pandemic taught us that conditions can change rapidly, and our workforce, businesses and communities must be skilled enough to adapt and grow,” Sanders said. “Simply put, to continue leading the nation, we cannot rely solely on what made us successful in the past.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 12:04 PM.
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