COVID-19 in NC: Fewer than 1,000 new cases mark final daily update from NCDHHS

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The last scheduled daily COVID-19 update in North Carolina showed the kind of continued improvement that led public health leaders to report those numbers less frequently in the first place.

The state Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday reported fewer than 1,000 new cases for the fifth straight day and fewer than 400 hospitalizations for the fourth day in a row.

The update was the last of its kind: NCDHHS says it will now update its entire data dashboard on a weekly basis beginning April 13 and continuing every Wednesday.

The move comes weeks after public health leaders revamped the main page of the dashboard to track only seven key measures and updating those metrics once a week.

That final daily update included 876 new cases, marking the first five-day streak in triple digits since North Carolina went nearly two months from May-July 2021 without recording 1,000 of them on a single day.

The state averaged 817 new cases per day over the past week, the lowest that number has been since July 16.

The 381 people in hospitals represented a slight drop from the revised count of 384 on Tuesday, and came two days after the state set a nine-month low.

NCDHHS also reported 18 more deaths, bringing the total to 23,257.