By Jared Putnam
Staff Writer
After months of progress in the fight against COVID-19, cases in Clay County are once again on the rise due to the highly-contagious Delta variant. The increase follows ongoing state and national trends of a fourth surge of the virus.
Clay County Health Department announced it will resume providing social media updates about active cases, fatalities and outbreaks within the county on a twice-weekly basis. Health Director Clarissa Rogers said there were 20 known active cases as of Monday.
"We have recently seen an uptick in COVID cases in Clay," Rogers said. "As a health department, we have seen both vaccinated and unvaccinated people testing positive. The majority of the vaccinated cases are suffering from shorter and milder symptoms, although some have been the opposite."
Rogers said most of the positive cases in Clay County began with travel-related exposures or household exposures. A few cases are also associated with outbreaks outside of Clay County.
Two individuals from Clay County were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday. Across North Carolina, at least 1,359 people were hospitalized with the virus, including 25 percent of those patients in intensive care units. Hospitalizations within the state have risen each day since July 9.
The virus is hitting some states much harder, especially across other parts of the South, where vaccination rates have lagged behind other regions. Louisiana reported a state-record 2,112 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Monday. Eighty-nine percent of those patients were not vaccinated. Our Lady of the Lake, Baton Rouge's largest hospital, has reportedly run out of available beds.
In Florida, the seven-day rate of new cases trails only Louisiana, according to federal statistics. The state reported a record 11,515 COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Tuesday.
Doctors and public health officials consistently describe the most recent flood of those hospitalized with the virus as younger and sicker than in the past, and unvaccinated.
This latest surge has, however, led to a renewed pursuit of vaccination after months of declining interest. According to CDC data, 70 percent of U.S. adults have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. President Joe Biden had hoped to reach that number by the Fourth of July holiday. While the percentage of vaccinated adults is barely half of that figure in Clay County — estimated to be between 35-40 percent — there has likewise been a recent rise in willingness to take the shot.
"We have seen an increase in vaccine administration," Rogers said.
Clay County Health Department is now offering the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 12 and up. During the most recent board of education meeting, Clay County School Superintendent Dale Cole provided county data stating that only one percent of local children ages 12-17 have received a vaccine.
"We have Pfizer vaccine available for kids ages 12 and up," Rogers said. "Also, per a state call last week, Moderna has put in their request again to lower the authorized age range to 12 and up so, hopefully we will know something on that soon."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that even vaccinated people resume masking indoors in certain areas of the country and that K-12 schools adopt universal masking for all individuals regardless of vaccination status. The guidelines were revised after data showed that rare breakthrough infections for fully vaccinated people lead to a similar level of viral load as unvaccinated individuals who become infected.
"We always encourage citizens to continue to follow CDC guidelines to mitigate the spread and keep Clay County safe," Rogers said.