Raleigh, NC The number of coronavirus-related deaths in North Carolina continues to rise, with the state surpassing 9,000 deaths during the pandemic on Thursday.
Another 131 deaths were reported on Thursday, the sixth time in eight days that the state has reached above 100. The period has been the deadliest for the state since the pandemic began in March, with 846 deaths since January 21.
At the start of the pandemic, the state first recorded 846 deaths before nearly three months had passed.
“The past week and a half has been one of the highest we have had in our hospital during the entire pandemic,” said Dr. Brian Burrows, director of the emergency department at Duke Regional Hospital, said in Durham.
“The hard part about this is just not seeing people with their loved ones when they’re on their last breath,” Burrows said. ‘You have people who are too sick to have a iPad to talk to their families. ‘
By WakeMed in Raleigh, lung and critical care specialist Dr. Sachin Patel said death certificates are on the rise.
“We will have a day when almost four people pass by – some older, others young enough to be our brothers and sisters,” Patel said.
Eighty-three percent of the deaths so far have been people aged 65 and older. The group is now at the forefront of vaccinations against the virus. Less than 4 percent of deaths were in people younger than 50 years.
Burrows said the virus could affect people you would not expect.
“If you see someone at the same age as you being intruded for this virus, it strikes you: ‘Oh woe,'” he said.
The number of new infections and COVID-19 hospitalizations has stabilized over the past few days after rising in early January after holidays in which many people ignored the advice of public health officials not to travel with family and friends.
The 3,238 people treated for the virus in hospitals in North Carolina on Thursday were the lowest since Dec. 27, and the seven-day average of 3,361 COVID-19 hospital patients is the lowest since New Year’s Day.
About 7.9 percent of the coronavirus tests reported on Thursday were positive, which is the lowest level in more than two months.
Another 6,490 new cases of coronavirus were reported nationwide on Thursday, but the running, seven-day average of new cases dropped from 8,654 a day on January 12 to 5,843 a day, the first time since January that the average is below 6000 per day.
“It was predicted, and unfortunately we were right: the cases went up, the hospitalizations went up and the deaths went up too,” said Rachel Roper, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of East Carolina. .
Dr. Shannon Carson, head of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Medical Critical Care at the UNC School of Medicine, said deaths related to viruses are the latest measure to increase after infections and hospitalizations.
“After a week or two, they may have to be admitted to the hospital,” Carson said, adding that someone may be transferred to an intensive care unit after four or five days in the hospital. ‘Nearly 30 per cent of them, if they were the intensive care unit, would not survive hospitalization. ‘
‘It could be in the COVID cases [hospitals] ‘for weeks, and they can be in the fans for weeks – and in some cases I’ve heard for months – and then people can die quite a bit after being infected,’ Roper said.
Patel said people need to understand how dangerous the virus can be.
“It’s far from over,” he said. “We’re really into this now and it’s going to get worse in March.”