COVID cases have dropped rapidly across the county, state and nation, leading many to lose their familiar face coverings.
The steep decline in COVID cases observed across the state and nation is also happening locally.
The Toe River Health District released the latest round of case numbers on Saturday, Feb. 26.
For the period of Feb. 20-26, there were 68 new positives in Avery, 42 in Yancey and 25 in Mitchell. In the period, Avery had 27 active positives, Yancey 18 and Mitchell 11. Yancey has 32 COVID deaths, Avery 24 and Mitchell 20.
The post from the TRHD said the weekly case report will be paused indefinitely with numbers dropping rapidly. If cases pick up or something changes, the updates may begin again, the post read.
The numbers are down across the board. When soaring amid the Omicron variant surge, cases routinely topped triple digits in all three counties. Between higher vaccination rates and widespread natural immunity, cases have tumbled in Mitchell County and beyond.
More than half (53%) of the population of Avery is vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of Johnson & Johnson. Exactly half of the Yancey population is vaccinated and Mitchell checks in with a vaccination rate of 48%, as of the time of the release from the TRHD.
Mitchell County Schools, along with dozens of other districts in the state, recently dropped required masks for students and staff. Many counties have also followed by dropping their county-wide mask mandates, though Mitchell never had such a mandate.
Masks are also no longer required on buses, per new guidance from the CDC. Business owners, as always, can choose to enact their own mask policies. But many “mask required” signs that once adorned business doors in Mitchell County and across the state have come down in ribbons this month.
Hospitalization rates for COVID across the state have steadily declined. In late January, nearly 5,000 across the state were hospitalized, but that number shrank to just 1,461 as of March 1. The hospitalization total shrank weekly in February.
Across the nation, more than 550 million doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered. As of March 1, 215 million Americans were fully vaccinated, accounting for a 65.2% national vaccination rate.
In North Carolina, just north of 16 million doses have been put into arms with 6.23 million state residents (59.4%) having fully vaccinated status. North Carolina’s vaccination rate is better than 14 other states, including Tennesee, South Carolina and Georgia.