CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Mecklenburg County Health Department reports a 43-year-old Mecklenburg County resident with no known underlying health conditions has died related to COVID-19 infection.
At this time, further details about the resident will not be released to protect their and their family’s privacy.
"This is a somber reminder that residents of any age are susceptible to COVID-19 infection, complications and even death," health officials said.
As of Friday, there were 2,945 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 73 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.
Thursday night, the latest data showed 34.5% of cases were in the Hispanic community. Since then, that data has gone up again to 35.6%. Hispanic residents only account for about 14% of Mecklenburg County, according to Census estimates.
"MCPH continues to expand outreach to Hispanic members of our community, including increased dissemination of the outreach toolkit in Spanish for community partners, setting up targeted outreach to Hispanic owned- and serving-businesses, and partnering with local organizations and media outlets to spread key prevention messages," health officials said.
In a news conference on Friday, Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris said the county has had 17 outbreaks at long term care facilities.
"We're continuing to work with those facilities to make sure that they have the resources they need," Harris said.
Regarding the data, Harris said Mecklenburg County has seen a slight decrease over the last 14 days in the percent positives, but said the county has also seen a slight increase over the past 14 days in hospitalizations.
"We continue to watch those trends regularly," Harris said. "We're also continuing to see a bit of a slide in our social distancing."
The Mecklenburg County Health Dept. is asking everyone to answer phone calls from contact tracers.
"It doesn't help stop the spread if you don't answer," Harris said.
Harris also said there is a scam going around where individuals are being contacted by somebody who is trying to sell them something telling them that they've been positive and whatever they're trying to sell will be helpful to them.
Harris said if you wish to confirm whether a call is coming from a health department staff, you can ask for the name of the staff member, and then call the COVID hotline at 980-314-9400 option three to verify that information.
Data as of May 20:
- About 1 in 8 reported cases were hospitalized due to their COVID-19 infection. While everyone is at risk for severe COVID-19 complications, reported cases who were older adults (≥ 60 years) were more likely to be hospitalized compared to younger individuals.
- About 2 in 3 reported cases have met CDC criteria to be released from isolation.
- During the past week, an average of 62 individuals with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized at acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County. This represents a slight increase over the last 14-days. These data are based on daily census counts from acute care facilities in Mecklenburg County reporting to MCPH.
- During the past week, an average of 6.3 percent of individuals who were tested were positive for COVID-19. This represents a slight decrease over the last 14-days. These data only include tests conducted by Atrium Health and Novant Health.
- Seventy-one deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among reported cases.
- Almost all deaths were among older adults (≥ 60 years), 4 deaths were adults ages 50 to 59.
- All deaths occurred among adults with underlying chronic illnesses.
- Nearly 2 out of 3 were non-Hispanic Whites. The disparities in COVID-19 deaths among non-Hispanic Whites is related to differences in race/ethnicity of residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities actively experiencing an outbreak.
- More than half of the deaths were connected to active outbreaks at long-term care (LTC) facilities.
