North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday the state is on track to lift stay-at-home restrictions.
If the trends in COVID-19 cases remain stable, North Carolina could move into the first phase of reopening soon, Cooper said.
“Last week, we shared our three-phase plan to ease restrictions in North Carolina, and how we will measure progress,” Cooper said. “Right now, some are on track. But there are some potential warning signs ahead. That being said, North Carolinians have made tremendous sacrifices, and it’s working.”
There are four main trends states must maintain to move to the first phase of reopening, according to White House guidance.
The number of people exhibiting COVID-like symptoms, laboratory-confirmed cases, positive tests and hospitalizations need to remain on a decline for 14 days. North Carolina has been able to reach two of those benchmarks as of Thursday.
COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Symptoms of the disease include fever, cough, difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell.
The percent of COVID-like symptoms reported in emergency rooms in North Carolina has stayed on a downward trend since mid-March, but over the past seven days, those cases have increased, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said.
“Now, we want to be looking at this metric over 14 days. So if you look at an average over 14 days, we’re generally level, but obviously, we’re going to be following this one closely because these last seven days [saw] that upward tick,” she said.
There also has been a recent increase in the number of new COVID-19 laboratory cases.
North Carolina saw its biggest day-over-day uptick in lab cases Thursday, with 561 cases confirmed. Cohen said that could be a result of more testing. However, there is a downward trend in the number of positive cases when compared with the number of tests the state has performed. Hospitalizations also have remained on a steady decline.
“We need [to] keep up the actions that will slow the spread of the virus. The good news is that we know we can do this,” Cohen said. “If we stay home now to protect our loved ones and our communities, we can put ourselves on a path to begin easing restrictions and moving forward as planned.”
As of Thursday, North Carolina has 10,509 lab-confirmed cases, 546 people in the hospital and 378 deaths caused by COVID-19.
