NC’s increased testing finds another 400-plus COVID-19 cases, as college graduations go virtual
Coronavirus cases continued their steady climb in North Carolina on Sunday, while the number of hospitalized patients dropped.
Meanwhile, graduations went on virtually at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, and many Triangle residents honored their mothers either remotely or in person with appropriate social distancing.
The total number of cases in North Carolina’s official count grew by 404 to 14,764. The daily case count exceeded 400 for the fifth consecutive day, according to updated information provided by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.
The growing number of reported cases is expected, DHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen has said, because North Carolina’s testing is increasing. The state collected results for 5,773 tests on Sunday, showing it continues to meet its testing goal of between 5,000 and 7,000 tests per day.
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the traditional Mother’s Day brunches and the in-person commencements at Duke and UNC, which usually happen on Mother’s Day.
Instead, both Duke and UNC celebrated virtually on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube through recorded messages for the graduating classes of 2020.
The number of patients hospitalized by COVID-19 dropped to 442 from the 513 the state reported on Saturday. It’s the first time since last Monday that number fell below 500.
The state reported three new deaths, bringing that total to 547.
A Sheetz store in south Raleigh has closed temporarily for deep cleaning after an employee tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a company spokesperson said Sunday. The store is at 9915 Fayetteville Road.
Since the pandemic began, several Sheetz locations across the nation have been closed for cleaning after employees tested positive, said spokesperson Nick Ruffner in an email to The News & Observer. Last month, The News & Observer reported a Sheetz worker tested positive at a store on N.C. 751 in Durham.
This was the first weekend after Gov. Roy Cooper modified his stay-at-home order, allowing more stores to open. State officials are monitoring the virus’ spread to determine if even more restrictions will be relaxed on May 22.
Mother’s Day Sunday brought a wait to get into some newly opened stores, which are only supposed to allow 50% capacity inside.
At the T.J. Maxx in Knightdale, Beverly Brown waited in line on the sidewalk out front as an employee counted how many people entered and exited.
Once inside, Brown noticed everyone doing their best to keep up social distancing. Customers followed arrows that directed one way down certain aisles.
“There’s still a lot of people in the store,” Brown said. “It’s still pretty full, but everybody was doing a really good job cleaning and all the customers did a good job kind of backing away from each other when you got to a tight spot.”
The News & Observer is keeping a separate count of COVID-19 cases based on reports from DHHS and county health departments, which tends to be higher because the state updates its total once a day. As of Sunday evening, that tally stood at 14,939 cases and 564 deaths.
Virtual graduations
The Duke and UNC videos featured performances, montages of proud family members and celebratory messages of encouragement from notable alumni.
UNC coaches Roy Williams, Courtney Banghart and Mark Gangloff congratulated Carolina grads along with alumni who included journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Brooke Baldwin.
Duke alumni including “PBS NewsHour” anchor Judy Woodruff and actor Ken Jeong celebrated the Class of 2020 in a video to students.
The cancellation of the usual graduations was devastating — financially and emotionally — for many Triangle hotels, restaurants and bars.
“Graduation weekend is routinely in the top five weekends of the year,” said Scott Maitland of Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery in Chapel Hill. “If the Carolina Inn is the living room of the university, we’re its front porch.”
Staff writers Jonas Pope IV and Kate Murphy contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 10, 2020 at 11:26 AM with the headline "NC’s increased testing finds another 400-plus COVID-19 cases, as college graduations go virtual."
