The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is reporting a record high number of hospitalizations yet again. 780 people are now hospitalized due to complications of COVID-19, up 6 from Tuesday. This marks the 5th new record high of this metric in June.
With 86 percent of hospitals reporting, 22 percent of inpatient beds and 14 percent of ICU beds are still available.
NCDHHS is reporting 1,011 more cases of COVID-19 in the state, bringing the total to 38,171. 24 more deaths were reported. So far, 1,053 people have died from COVID-19 in North Carolina since the start of the pandemic.
In the last 24 hours, the state has exceeded its testing goal of 5,000-7,000 per day with 17,939 more tests.
Health officials say North Carolina is trending in the wrong direction in terms of the benchmarks they’ve been monitoring on the spread of the virus. They’re urging more people to get tested.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. DHHS, said earlier this week that anyone who has attended mass gatherings, including protests, and those who are around a lot of people at work should be tested regardless of whether they have symptoms. A department memo also suggested that anyone with symptoms, anyone who has had close contact with someone who has the virus and those at a higher risk should be tested.
Here's more from our news partner WTVD ABC11: