After months of decline, North Carolina is experiencing a rapid increase in COVID-19 spread among those who are unvaccinated. Yesterday, 1,998 cases were reported to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and 817 people are hospitalized with 132 admitted in the past 24 hours. There have been 9,053 cases reported over the past seven days compared to 5,441 cases in the preceding seven days — a 66% increase — and hospitalizations doubled since July 9 and are at the highest rate they have been since the May 11.
The N.C. Senate Finance Committee approved a bill Thursday that would dramatically alter high school sports governance in the state and end 110 years of control by the N.C. High School Athletics Association. The organization’s commissioner, Que Tucker, tells media that she believes the bill is the product of racism.
Ollie Mulligan, this week from an airport somewhere in the Northeast, talked about his upcoming flight home, about returning to his native Ireland, to County Kildare. He thought aloud about the bright, rolling green fields. Of horses, and of Guinness.
The latest episode of All Things Judicial features part one of a three-part series on the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. Part one is hosted by Lindsey Guice Smith, Executive Director of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, and the guests are commissioners Johnson Britt, Rick Glazier, and John Boswell.
The following are highlights from this week at the N.C. Department of Transportation. The stories below are also featured in NCDOT Now, the department's weekly newscast.
North Carolina Healthcare Association (NCHA) announced its position approved by the association’s board of trustees supporting COVID-19 vaccination requirements for healthcare workers. NCHA also announced several of its member health systems intend to be first in the state to require COVID-19 vaccination for their employees.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced it has expanded its COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program from 10 to 19 sites to better identify areas where virus is spreading.
Gov. Roy Cooper will allow existing state mask mandates to expire on July 30, but he's recommending required masking for public school students in kindergarten through middle school. Cooper emphasized those changes during a Wednesday afternoon press conference on updated state COVID-19 guidance.
Governor Roy Cooper visited a vaccine clinic at the Forsyth County Department of Public Health to encourage more North Carolinians get their COVID-19 vaccine.
