From Staff Reports

As of Oct. 19, Buncombe County and Mission Health officials said that COVID-19 numbers are spiking, with the county reporting 3,800 total cases and 98 deaths, according to Asheville television station WLOS (News 13).

Officials said on Oct. 19 that “86,000 tests have been given out and the percent positive rate has gone up to 3.5,” News 13 reported, adding that “officials said it is good that the number is still less than 5 percent. But they said they are still concerned that the percentage has been trending up since last month.”

Meanwhile, local COVID-19 infections are spiking at the same rates seen during the first surge back in July, with cases appearing to be linked to lack of basic precautions, Buncombe County Public Health Director Stacie Saunders said in an Oct. 23 briefing, an Ashevile Area Chamber of Commerce news release stated.

“As our communicable disease teams are doing the case investigations, they’re not finding any one particular location or facility site that folks are visiting more than others,” Saunders told the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners during an Oct 20 pandemic update. “But what they are finding is that people are out.”

The chamber press release added, “Saunders gave the latest county report as much of the world is watching a second wave of infections rise up at the same time the northern hemisphere moves into the heart of flu season.”

Meanwhile, at Asheville-based Mission Hospital the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 had also risen to July’s highest levels, Dr. William Hathaway, Mission Health’s chief medical officer, stated in late October. 

“Mission’s and the county’s numbers overlap but don’t cover the same population since the health department tracks infections among residents, while Mission has patients from in and outside the county,” the chamber release noted. “What you see that is concerning to me is we are approaching, if not surpassing, our peak of patients that we have hospitalized in July,” Hathaway said.

What’s more, Hathaway was quoted by News 13 as saying, “The shapes of these curves that you see, that Stacie (Saunders, Buncombe’s public health director) presented, that I presented, are very very similar, meaning that what is happening nationally is happening locally, and we all need to be aware of that.”

As of Oct. 19, Mission had 31 COVID-19 patients, including eight in ICU, Hathaway told News 13. He added that Mission is averaging 35-45 COVID-19 patients right now, which is trending close to what the hospital was seeing during the July spike.

Hathaway said a positive sign is that as cases have gone up, the number of people in ICU has remained flat.

“Officials stressed the need to follow the three Ws,” News 13 reported. “They also said it is critically important for people to get flu shots.” (The so-called “three W’s” are wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance.)

Statewide as of Oct. 19, North Carolina health officials said there had been a total of 247,172 COVID-19 cases, an increase of 14,425 cases from the previous week’s report.

In addition, the state reported a total of 3,939 COVID-19-related deaths. As of Oct. 19, there were 1,142 people hospitalized due to COVID-19. There had been 3,640,086 tests completed to date.

The state reported there were 206,471 presumed recoveries as of Oct. 12.

Following is an update — as of Oct. 12 — of COVID-19  cases and deaths in localities in Western North Carolina: (numbers are subject to change):

• Avery: 257 community cases, 242 total cases at the prison, 1 death, according to the county (574 cases, 0 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Buncombe: 3,687 cases, 95 deaths, according to the county (3,784 cases, 94 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Cherokee: 735 cases, 18 deaths, according to the county (733 cases, 12 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Clay: 216 cases, 3 deaths, according to the county (181 cases, 3 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Graham: 232 cases, 7 deaths, according to NCDHHS

• Haywood: 588 cases, 36 deaths, according to the county (690 cases, 36 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Henderson: 2,342 cases, 66 deaths, according to the county (2,346 cases, 64 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Jackson: 840 cases, 7 deaths, according to the county (853 cases, 7 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Macon: 709 cases, 7 deaths, according to the county (704 cases, 7 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Madison: 154 cases, 1 death, according to NCDHHS

• McDowell: 1,103 cases, 31 deaths, according to the county (1,215 cases, 31 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Mitchell: 231 cases, 5 deaths, according to the county (189 cases, 4 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Polk: 373 cases, 12 deaths, according to the county (376 cases, 11 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Rutherford: 1,538 cases, 54 deaths, according to the county (1,601 cases, 46 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Swain: 214 cases, 3 deaths, according to the county (223 cases, 3 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Transylvania: 391 cases, 9 deaths, according to the county (389 cases, 9 deaths, according to NCDHHS)

• Yancey: 264 cases, 1 death, according to the county (271 cases, 0 deaths, according to NCDHHS)