ASHEVILLE, NC – March 12, 2025 – The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on March 1st shows:
- Less than 2% of the deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the 2nd lowest level of 6 groups.
- Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are minimal in North Carolina, representing 1% of all visits, a moderate decrease since last week.
Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID, flu and RSV outbreaks. For the week ending on March 1st, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level for the state is moderate. The Buncombe & Henderson counties COVID wastewater data for the week ending on February 26th shows:
- The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a yellow level representing the 3rd highest level of 5 groups, currently between the 40th and 60th percentile relative to the past peak 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, at 10% to 99%, the 2nd highest level of 3 groups for a positive rate of change.
During the week ending on March 1st, viral activity levels in the North Carolina wastewater were moderate for influenza A and very low for RSV, and viral activity levels in the Buncombe County wastewater were moderate for influenza A, and low for RSV.
The CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending on February 22nd (16 days ago) indicates that levels are either high or very high in 40 of 47 continental states (with Vermont not reporting). The Mountain West and northern plains states have moderate levels. North Carolina is at a high level.
The CDC reports that the weekly percent of positive tests for RSV for the week ending on March 1st is below 5% for Region 4 (which are the states in the southeast U.S. including North Carolina).
The weekly North Carolina Respiratory Virus Summary Dashboard for the week ending on March 1st shows:
- Less than 12% of all emergency room patients had symptoms of a respiratory viral illness, about a 20% decrease from last week.
- Influenza-like symptoms represented about 40% of these patients
- There were about 2 thousand hospital admissions from the emergency department in North Carolina for people who had a diagnosis, or symptoms, of respiratory viral infection, a 7% decrease since last week. More patients were admitted with the flu than any other respiratory disease.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
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