North Carolina Streamlines COVID-19 Data as Pandemic Transitions to Routine Public Health Concern

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The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has announced updates to its COVID-19 dashboard and state-funded testing sites, as the federal public health emergency is set to conclude on May 11, 2023. As COVID-19 becomes a routine aspect of public health and healthcare activities, NCDHHS will incorporate COVID-19 data with other respiratory illness data.

“While we continue to see illness and deaths from COVID-19, it is no longer the threat it once was thanks to testing, vaccines and treatment,” said NCDHHS Director Susan Kansagra in a press release. “As we evolve our response to the more routine nature of COVID-19 going forward, these indicators will help us monitor our health care capacity from respiratory illness including COVID-19 and adjust our response if needed.”

The North Carolina Respiratory Illness Summary Dashboard will now feature this combined information, including three main graphs along with other detailed data:

  1. COVID-like illness, influenza-like illness, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-like illness, and other respiratory illness visits to emergency departments.
  2. New COVID-19 and influenza hospital admissions.
  3. Wastewater surveillance.

As COVID-19 vaccination data is not changing as rapidly, updates will now be provided monthly, with the data set to retire on May 31. The CDC will continue to offer vaccination data after this date. COVID-19 case and death data, as well as variant proportions, will still be accessible through links from the Respiratory Illness Dashboard. Reports to be retired this month include COVID-19 patients presumed to be recovered, hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status, and COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate living settings. CDC COVID-19 community levels can be found on the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker site.

You can find out more about the fight against Covid in NC at myspot.nc.gov.

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