North Carolina saw its second-highest increase in daily COVID-19 cases Thursday, with state officials reporting 2,160 cases and a total of 93,426. South Carolina’s cases increased by 1,842 to 63,880.
South Carolina passed the 1,000 death mark, with a new one-day high of 69 new deaths reported Thursday. The total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the state is now 1,053. North Carolina reported an additional 20 deaths and a total of 1,588.
721 of those deaths have been in North Carolina nursing homes, which have had 5,144 COVID-19 cases. There are 147 ongoing outbreaks in the state’s nursing homes. 17 of those are in Mecklenburg County, which also has 14 residential facility outbreaks.
When it comes to COVID-19 related hospitalizations, they declined slightly in North Carolina from 1,142 to 1,134. South Carolina hospitalizations increased by 18 from the previous day to 1,578, the highest number so far. 214 of those patients are on ventilators.
The positive test rate in South Carolina remains high. There were just over 8,600 test results reported Wednesday, with a positive rate of 21.3%. In North Carolina more than 28,000 tests were conducted Wednesday with a positive rate of 9%, similar to what the state has seen over the past several weeks. Health officials want to see that number at 5% or lower.