Here are the 65 North Carolina counties now in the red zone on state’s COVID risk map
About two-thirds of North Carolina’s 100 counties are seeing “critical community spread” of the coronavirus ahead of Christmas, according to state health officials.
Sixty-five counties are in the red zone on the statewide COVID-19 map, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday.
That’s a jump from 48 counties listed in the most critical tier on Dec. 8.
Counties land in the red zone when they report more than 200 cases per 100,000 people in a two-week period. Areas in this category also see a “high impact” on local hospitals or a positive test rate of more than 10%, according to the state.
Among North Carolina’s most populous counties, Forsyth, Guilford and Mecklenburg are all in the red category. Wake County, home to Raleigh, is in the orange zone, which indicates “substantial” spread.
Twenty-seven counties are now in the orange zone, according to the state. Nine of them are in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Three orange counties are in the southeastern part of the state: New Hanover, Brunswick and Columbus.
The state has only eight yellow-zone counties with “significant spread,” down from 18 two weeks ago. Two of them are in the Triangle — Chatham and Orange.
In their update Tuesday, health officials urged residents to avoid traveling for the holidays, regardless of county zones.
“Individuals in all counties should avoid holiday travel, follow guidance for celebrating winter holidays safety, and get the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available and their turn,” they said.
The updated map was released the same day North Carolina reported the highest number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations seen in a single day during the pandemic. In the past week, daily COVID-19 cases and deaths also hit records.
Here are the 65 counties in the red zone:
- Alamance County
- Alexander County
- Alleghany County
- Ashe County
- Avery County
- Beaufort County
- Bertie County
- Bladen County
- Cabarrus County
- Caldwell County
- Camden County
- Caswell County
- Catawba County
- Cleveland County
- Craven County
- Cumberland County
- Currituck County
- Davidson County
- Davie County
- Duplin County
- Forsyth County
- Franklin County
- Gaston County
- Gates County
- Guilford County
- Halifax County
- Harnett County
- Henderson County
- Hertford County
- Hoke County
- Hyde County
- Iredell County
- Jackson County
- Johnston County
- Lee County
- Lincoln County
- Martin County
- McDowell County
- Mecklenburg County
- Mitchell County
- Montgomery County
- Moore County
- Nash County
- Onslow County
- Pasquotank County
- Pender County
- Perquimas County
- Person County
- Pitt County
- Randolph County
- Richmond County
- Robeson County
- Rockingham County
- Rowan County
- Rutherford County
- Scotland County
- Stanly County
- Surry County
- Swain County
- Transylvania County
- Union County
- Vance County
- Warren County
- Wilson County
- Yadkin County
This story was originally published December 22, 2020, 2:06 PM.
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