ASHEVILLE, NC – July 10, 2024 – The winter surge of respiratory infections, like COVID-19, influenza and RSV, has passed. However, over the past 3 years, COVID-19 infections have also surged in August. Therefore, the weekly update will continue to report on COVID-19 and restart influenza and RSV updates in the fall.
The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on June 29th shows:
- Fewer 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, less than 1% of all visits. However, there was a moderate increase since last week of almost 20%.
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 June 26th shows:
- The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is between 40-60%, the 3rd level of 5 groups.
- The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample is unknown. However, the surrounding counties of Swain and Jackson have increased from the previous week to 100% or greater, the highest level of 3 groups with a positive rate of change. Henderson and McDowell counties did not report data for the week.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org