MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Health officials in Mecklenburg County released information showing how the coronavirus is impacting certain neighborhoods throughout the county, and some zip codes have worse percent positivity rates than the overall county.
Although Mecklenburg County isn't seeing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases, health officials are warning folks to be responsible and stay home as cases continue to rise.
Mecklenburg County had an 8.2% positivity rate for Nov. 1-15.
At Tuesday's Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners meeting, Deputy Health Director of the county's health department, Dr. Raynard Washington, released new information by zip code.
It showed a breakdown of percent positivity rates zip code by zip code.
The zip code with the highest positivity rate was 28214, on the west side of the county. It had a 12.7% positivity rate.
"Across all our indicators in our county, we are continuing to see increases," Washington said.
As of Tuesday, here is a breakdown of positivity rates by zip code in Mecklenburg County:
- 28214 12.7%
- 28134 11.1%
- 28216 11.0%
- 28217 10.6%
- 28227 10.3%
- 28273 10.3%
- 28269 9.9%
- 28215 9.6%
- 28208 9.5%
- 28078 9.0%
- 28212 9.0%
- 28206 8.5%
- 28213 8.0%
- 28203 7.5%
- 28209 7.3%
- 28031 7.2%
- 28202 6.9%
- 28277 6.8%
- 28270 6.3%
- 28204 6.0%
- 28105 5.7%
- 28262 5.6%
- 28205 5.5%
- 28210 5.3%
- 28036 5.1%
- 28226 4.9%
- 28211 4.7%
- 28207 3.7%
"It's just a reminder that COVID-19 does not have any knowledge or awareness of the geographic boundaries we create," Washington said.
The breakdown was from data taken from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15.
Mecklenburg County's numbers are climbing with an average of 300 new COVID-19 cases every day, Washington said.
"It's a fairly significant increase from the improvement we observed in the latter part of the summer," Washington added.
Hospital capacity here is stable for now, according to health officials and data, but we've seen things change quickly before.
It's why Washington urged everyone not to gather for Thanksgiving and to just stay home.
If you must gather, he asked everyone to do it responsibly by keeping turnout small, 10 or less, and keep it outdoors. He also encouraged everyone to wear masks at Thanksgiving, even if it's just family members, and to quarantine for 14 days after any gathering.
"Please keep it as small as possible and of course it's always better to stay local than to travel out of town because it adds additional risks," he concluded.