NCDHHS Report Estimates Almost 37,000 Recoveries From COVID. North Carolina Down To 15,461 Active COVID Cases

June 23, 2020
For Immediate Release

Raleigh, NC - Good news! North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released a report that estimated that almost 37,000 North Carolinians have recovered from COVID 19. This good news means that North Carolina is down to 15,461 active cases of COVID. As the world learns to live with COVID, it is essential to understand most people who get COVID recover. 

 There is also good news coming from our hospitals. As of June 22, North Carolina has 870 people hospitalized because of COVID 19 and 4120 empty hospital beds, 468 ICU beds, and over 2001 available ventilators. These numbers do not even include the surge capacity that our excellent hospitals have built out. Our hospitals have done such a great job, that North Carolina could currently handle four times the amount of COVID patients without activating the surge capacity. 

 "North Carolinians are recovering from COVID, and our hospitals have done a great job increasing their capacity to protect our health," said NCGOP Press Secretary Tim Wigginton. "North Carolina is a state of 10.5 million people with a million people out of work. Given our recovery rates and excess hospital capacity, it is past time to reopen the economy fully and safely like the vast majority of other states." 

In addition to the state statistics on recoveries and hospital capacity, a new report out of Wake Forest Baptist Health which highlights that potentially over a million North Carolinians may have already been exposed to COVID 19. Cooper's continued insistence on keeping North Carolina locked down despite the low number of active cases, ample hospital capacity, and an increasing number of people with antibody tests is genuinely confusing. 

While the increasing number of positive tests remains a concern, it is critical to keep these numbers in context. It is also critical for Governor Cooper to stop blocking the full release of COVID-19 data to help provide all North Carolinians with that context. 

Congressman Greg Murphy MD confirmed that while the White House Coronavirus Task Force was deeply concerned about North Carolina's COVID numbers, According to Task Force officials, it is clear that the initial reopening of our economy had nothing to do with our current increase in COVID-19 cases. Instead, North Carolina made a systematic flaw in responding to COVID. Perhaps this explains why Governor Cooper refuses to comply with North Carolina Public Record Laws and release all the COVID data to the public. 

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