Last week, the City of Charlotte showed up on an official White House pandemic task force briefing as having the highest surge of new COVID-19 cases in the nation.
The document was obtained by NBC News and shows which metropolitan areas have the highest spikes. The document includes a section called ‘Locations to watch’, which lists the 10 top areas that recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week.
Charlotte appears as the #1 ‘location to watch’ on the list:
Yesterday North Carolina saw its largest single day increase in cases to date with 730 new COVID-19 cases reported across the state.
Our state has now confirmed a total of 16,352 total cases, 625 deaths, and 210,457 total tests. Mecklenburg County is now reporting a total of 2,283 cases and 63 deaths from COVID-19 as of 6:00 pm on May 14th, 2020.
Governor Cooper’s ‘phase 1’ order is in effect until 5 pm on Friday, May 22. However, the end of this Order does not necessarily mean the state will move to Phase 2. Phase 2 will only start if data and indicators are in the right place.
Phase 2 includes the following changes:
- Lift Stay At Home order with strong encouragement for vulnerable populations to continue staying at home to stay safe
- Allow limited opening of restaurants, bars, fitness centers, personal care services, and other businesses that can follow safety protocols including the potential need to reduce capacity
- Allow gathering at places such as houses of worship and entertainment venues at reduced capacity
- Increase in number of people allowed at gatherings
- Open public playgrounds
- Continue rigorous restrictions on nursing homes and other congregant care settings
After 4-6 weeks of phase 2, if everything still looks under control, the state will move to Phase 3, which includes the following changes:
- Lessen restrictions for vulnerable populations with encouragement to continue practicing physical distancing and minimizing exposure to settings where distancing isn’t possible
- Allow increased capacity at restaurants, bars, other businesses, houses of worships, and entertainment venues
- Further increase the number of people allowed at gatherings
- Continue rigorous restrictions on nursing homes and other congregant care settings
Governor Cooper underscored the need for the testing, tracing and trends to move in the right direction for each of these phases to move forward. If there is a spike in infections, tightening of restrictions may be needed temporarily.
What do you think about the plans?