COVID-19 cases within the UNC Hospital system are climbing, according to a recent report.
Alan Wolf, Director of News for UNC Health, told Chapelboro Wednesday that COVID patients had quadrupled at the health system’s hospitals from about 80 in mid-November to about 320 this month.
“Our physicians expect that this week and next week, after all the holiday travel and gatherings, will give us a better idea of what the coming month or two will bring,” Wolf said.
Wolf’s statement comes as a majority of counties within North Carolina have shifted into either medium or high levels of community spread. Orange and Chatham counties are both in the medium level as of Thursday, January 5.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services measured 22.5 million COVID virus particles in wastewater in the week ending on December 21, continuing an upward trend which began in mid-November. Last January saw virus particle numbers increase dramatically following the holidays, with a high of 106 million particles in the week ending on January 19, 2022. More information can be found on the department’s COVID dashboard here.
Wolf also reported UNC Hospital closed its Pediatric Surge Unit over the Christmas holiday. The unit initially opened in November to combat a surge of flu and Respiratory Syncytial virus, or RSV, cases in children.
“We are still seeing some RSV and flu among kids, but the numbers for those illnesses have come down significantly from their peak,” Wolf said.
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