By Anne Blythe You hear it more and more as the holidays approach. “There is light at the end of the tunnel,” public health leaders assure us while touting vaccines on the horizon. That glimmer of light is still months away, and at the moment North Carolina and the rest of the country are going […]
By Anne Blythe Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, plans to practice what she has been preaching about Thanksgiving gatherings. North Carolina’s recent daily-case milestones of more than 3,000 and 4,000 have been no cause for celebration. As the number of cases balloons across the state and country, public […]
By Anne Blythe North Carolina’s public health team has rolled out a new mapping tool that shows viral hotspots across the state as part of an attempt to engage leaders and residents in those counties to tailor stronger plans for slowing COVID-19 spread in specific regions. Through a color-coded alert system, the state will use […]
By Anne Blythe While many questions linger after Election Day about key political races still not called in North Carolina, there is less ambiguity about one thing: The campaign rallies that brought candidates to this swing state in search of blue and red votes are expected to disappear. COVID-19, however, shows no signs of going […]
By Anne Blythe North Carolina’s rural counties have become a major source for rising COVID-19 case counts, according to public health officials. Gov. Roy Cooper and Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, offered an array of reasons on Wednesday for the case surge occurring as cooler weather is sending […]
By Anne Blythe, Hannah Critchfield and Thomas Goldsmith On a day that North Carolina’s COVID-19 death toll topped the 4,000 mark and the number of people hospitalized with illness related to the novel coronavirus is the second highest in the pandemic, Gov. Roy Cooper hit the pause on any further reopening. North Carolina public health […]
By Rose Hoban With little debate, members of the Union County board of commissioners voted unanimously Monday afternoon to disengage the county from their relationship with Cardinal Innovations, which has managed mental health services there for years. Several hours later, Cabarrus County commissioners followed suit, initiating the process of severing ties with the organization, which […]
By Anne Blythe Two very different messages about the coronavirus pandemic came from two different podiums in North Carolina on Thursday. In Greenville, at the Greenville-Pitt Airport, President Donald Trump downplayed the pandemic to the crowd gathered for a campaign rally. “North Carolina, tell your governor open up your state, open up your schools,” Trump […]
By Anne Blythe If North Carolinians want to keep going to restaurants and retail stores through the winter, now is not the time to let coronavirus pandemic fatigue give way to less mask wearing and social distancing. That was the message from Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, who […]
By Anne Blythe Gov. Roy Cooper said on Tuesday that he will be glad once the elections are over so the partisan politics and the White House messaging that has affected how some people react to the coronavirus pandemic can subside and perhaps bring a sharper focus on public health and proven science. The governor’s […]
