Active Cases Fall as NC COVID-19 Recoveries Top 80% of Known Cases | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: The author of this post is Jon Sanders for the John Locke Foundation.

    In recent weeks I have discussed presumed recoveries from COVID-19 in NC as well as active cases of the virus. More testing helps us find more known cases of infections, many of which include asymptomatic people or people who don't feel unwell.

    Active cases are known cases minus deaths and recoveries. Here are the most recent numbers, per the state Department of Health and Human Services (June 27):

• Total known cases: 114,338 (up 13,292)
• Total deaths: 1,790 (up 51)
• Total recoveries: 92,302 (up 13,595)

    Here are some implications of those data (based on known cases):

• There are 20,246 active cases of COVID-19 in NC — that is down 354 from last week
• This was the first week active cases showed a decline
• This was also the first week there were more recoveries than new cases
• Since May 11, known cases have increased 660 percent, deaths have increased 182 percent, and recoveries have increased 913 percent
• There are 4.6 times more people who've recovered from COVID-19 in NC than who have it
• 80.7 percent of NC's known cases of COVID-19 are recoveries

    The graph at the top of this post shows the week-to-week changes in recoveries, known cases, and deaths.