ASHEVILLE, NC – June 26, 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 15th shows:
- 1-9 of the deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the lowest level of 6 groups.
- Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are minimal in North Carolina, less than 1% of all visits
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 12th shows:
- The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is between 20-40%, the 2nd lowest level of 5 groups.
- The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample has decreased from the previous week to between -99% to -10%, the lowest level of 2 groups with a negative rate of change.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org