426 New Cases In 14 Days: Huntersville COVID-19 Update

HUNTERSVILLE, NC — The spread of coronavirus in Mecklenburg County increased by nearly more than 3,300 known COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The news comes as Gov. Roy Cooper renewed a plea for vaccine holdouts to get a shot, and new deaths pushed the COVID death toll in the state to more than 15,000.

In Huntersville, at least 426 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past 14 days in the 28078 zip code, according to the Mecklenburg County Health Department.

Overall, at least 7,815 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Huntersville, along with 59 deaths, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data.

According to county public health officials, this week an average of 12.3 percent of those tested in the county were positive for coronavirus, representing a slight decrease in trends in the last 14 days.

Hospitalizations also decreased in the past week, according to officials. In the past week, 235 new patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 illness in Mecklenburg County, a nearly 19 percent decrease in new patients in the span of seven days, the CDC said.

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As of Sept. 10, about 59 percent of eligible Mecklenburg County residents were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC Covid Tracker.

Thursday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper urged vaccine hesitant residents to "get off social media and get on the phone with your doctor," as the state continues to reel from the spread of COVID-19. As of Sept. 9, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of 15,004 state residents.

"The numbers aren't good, especially the number of people in the hospital and dying," Cooper said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. "We can't stress enough – by far, the most people hospitalized by COVID right now are unvaccinated."

"How many more people have to get sick and die because people don't get this miraculous, God-given, effective and extraordinarily safe vaccine?" Cooper said. "How many more people will have to witness the painful, cruel death of a loved one to finally see that vaccines are the way out of this?"

The number of COVID-19 cases rose by nearly 5,900 new cases Friday, as 3,756 people were hospitalized for COVID-related illness, DHHS said.