ASHEVILLE, NC – August 7, 2024 – The winter surge of respiratory infections, like COVID-19, has passed. However, over the past 3 years, COVID-19 infections have also surged in August.
The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on July 27th 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 low in North Carolina, less than 3.0% of all visits. They have increased more than 30% since last week.
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 July 24th shows:
- The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is between 80-100%, the highest level of 5 groups.
- The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample has increased from the previous week to between 10-99%, the 2nd highest level of 3 groups with a positive rate of change.
The increasing numbers may predict a COVID infection surge in August, like in years past.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org