N.C.’s COVID-19 Cases, Deaths Climb
By Cash Michaels, Peacemaker Senior Contributor / July 10, 2020
As of Monday, July 6th, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, North Carolina logged 74,529 cases of COVID-19 statewide, 24 percent of which were Black (or African American); and 1,398 deaths, 33 percent of which are Black.
The total cases logged Monday were 1,546 more than were counted the day before; 982 COVID-19 hospitalizations, the highest until then, had also been recorded.
Also on Monday, more than 1 million tests for coronavirus had been completed across the state, with approximately 9 percent coming back positive.
In key counties like Guilford, there are 3,149 cases and of that number, 39 percent are Black, with 37 percent of the 117 deaths being Blacks. New Hanover has 1,138 cases, 17 percent of those are Black, with 7 deaths, 0 percent Black. Buncombe has 693 cases, 8 percent which are Black, and of that county’s 29 deaths, 0 percent were Black. Meanwhile, Mecklenburg has seen 13,111 cases, 29 percent are Black, and of the 154 recorded deaths, 31 percent are Black.
With Mecklenburg County registering among the highest number of cases per county across the state, Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12) issued a report on the COVID-19 pandemic early Tuesday of this week on her office’s constituent service. As of July 6th, Adam’s office responded, by letter, to 10,363 constituent questions and comments. Adams has submitted or helped sponsor five pieces of legislation in the Congress on COVID-19 issues. Her office has also drafted 15 Congressional letters requesting support from either Democratic House leadership, Pres. Trump or support from colleagues regarding COVID-19 related issues; and she has held 19 in-district events (virtual town halls) dealing with various aspects of the pandemic.
The result has been $212 million in federal funding awarded to Adam’s 12th Congressional District for coronavirus relief efforts.
After suing the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention for the information, the New York Times last week published statistics documenting that “Latino and African American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their White neighbors, according to the new data, which provides detailed characteristics of 640,000 infections detected in nearly 1,000 U.S. counties. And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as White people, the data shows.”
The Times report continued, “Experts point to circumstances that have made Black and Latino people more likely than White people to be exposed to the virus: Many of them have front-line jobs that keep them from working at home; rely on public transportation; or live in cramped apartments or multigenerational homes.”
Cash Michaels is an award-winning journalist and editor covering state news for the Carolina Peacemaker. He is based in Cary, N.C.
