ASHEVILLE, NC – March 13, 2024 – The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on March 2nd shows:
- Hospital admission levels are low in more than 90% of the counties in North Carolina, including Buncombe County, and high in 0%. They are low in more than 95% of the counties in the U.S. and high in less than 1%. Admissions have decreased in the U.S. and North Carolina and are unchanged in Buncombe County from the previous week.
- About 3% of the deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the 3rd lowest level of 6 groups.
- Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are low in North Carolina. This is about 2% of all ER visits, the 2nd lowest level of 5 groups
Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard for the week ending on February 28th shows:
- The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a red level representing the highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 80th and 100th percentile relative to the past level measured at the same site.
- The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample has increased from the previous week, between 1% to 9%, the lowest level of 3 groups for a positive rate of change.
The CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending on March 2nd indicates that North Carolina is at a moderate level.
The CDC reported that the 3-week average for the percent positivity for RSV PCR tests in North Carolina for the week ending on March 2nd shows that it continues to decrease to below 2% for the past 3 weeks.
The North Carolina Respiratory Virus Summary Dashboard for the week ending on March 2nd shows that
- The percentage of emergency room visits for people with respiratory virus symptoms has decreased.
- COVID and flu hospital admissions have decreased
- There were more COVID admissions than flu.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org