Hospitals, doctor’s offices seeing a rise in COVID cases across NC

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Some mask requirements could come back in North Carolina as local hospitals and doctor’s offices are seeing a rise in COVID cases.

“Just look left and right, do you know people who are being diagnosed with COVID-19? If we know more people in our families, in our workplace, congregations, in our communities that are getting COVID, chances are there’s a lot more COVID going around,” David Wohl, a professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, said.

The CDC says about 40 states are reporting high levels of COVID-19, including North Carolina.

Duke University Hospital reporting an increase in hospitalizations from the virus. For the week of July 14 ^th to the 20 ^th , they saw 21 hospitalizations, up from 15 the week before. 473 people tested positive for the virus in the hospital, up from 349 the week before.

But numbers are even higher than that, as people are testing and not reporting it.

“The way that we count COVID cases has changed, as we know, so we’re not reporting cases like we used to, and people are getting tested at home, not so much in their doctor’s offices or emergency rooms or urgent care,” Wohl explained.

And so you need to be taking precautions to keep yourself healthy. Consider wearing a mask if you’re feeling sick or having at-home tests on hand. While isolation guidelines have changed, some health professionals recommend not socializing until you’re symptom-free for at least 24 hours.

“Use your judgment, if you’re still coughing, if your test is still positive even beyond that period, I think you know you’re still infectious,” Wohl said.

Some hospitals or doctors’ offices could bring back masking requirements as numbers continue to go up.

“Right now nothing has changed, but I do encourage people now that there’s this surge-let, there may be a bigger surge coming, to think about masking more than they did over the last few months,” Wohl said.

Health professionals say we’ll likely see another surge in the winter.

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