Hendersonville resident Nancy Patterson has Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes an overactive thyroid. She founded a nonprofit foundation to help support others, and has spent the last three decades spreading awareness about the condition.
Limited COVID-19 testing supplies at commercial and hospital laboratories are causing significant delays in results. In turn, hospitals like Pardee in Hendersonville are forced to wait to administer COVID-19 treatment to suspected patients.
Buncombe County’s Tourist Development Authority began advertising for tourists to visit Asheville again — on the same day that the county’s top public health official said coronavirus cases were “rising at an alarming rate.”
The Buncombe County Board of Education was strongly divided on the move, approving it by only one vote. Chair Ann Franklin, along with members Amy Churchill, Max Queen and Peggy Buchanan, voted in favor of the plan, with Vice-Chair Cindy McMahon and members Pat Bryant and Donna Pate in opposition.
As Buncombe’s COVID-19 case count grows, there is little data on cases in individuals who live in another county but travel to Buncombe for work or leisure. Plus, North Carolina’s metrics may indicate some relief statewide.
Instead of bringing students back to the classroom under the Plan B model outlined by Gov. Roy Cooper, as had been announced on July 14, the Asheville City Board of Education voted unanimously to follow the remote-only Plan C for at least nine weeks at a July 23 special called meeting.
For many, Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order was a protective measure to keep the community safe from COVID-19. But for others, home isn’t safe: If someone is trapped in close quarters with an abuser, social distancing becomes incredibly dangerous. With no end to the pandemic in sight, local organizations are preparing for a rise in domestic and sexual violence despite their limited resources.
Teachers fear for their health under some NC school district plans, with other districts moving toward online-only instruction to begin school year.
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled an expanded dashboard detailing hospital capacity in different parts of the state. Of the 1,086 North Carolina patients hospitalized for COVID-19 on July 19, 41 were in Western North Carolina.
East Asheville resident Gloria Pincu lost her husband, Daniel, to COVID-19 while she also battled the disease. As she slowly regains her strength, Pincu is struggling to make sense of everything that’s happened since the pandemic began in March.
Two new programs, High Intensity Parenting and Lifeline, will provide enhanced training and round-the-clock access to supportive resources for foster parents, including financial incentives.
Based on antibody tests from six areas of the U.S., the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are an additional 10 coronavirus infections for each reported case of COVID-19. Xpress sought to determine if a similar pattern of hidden cases might hold true for the area’s coronavirus infections.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on both routine kidney care and the number of transplants. At the same time, the estimated 37 million American adults with chronic kidney disease are at greater risk of contracting the virus.
With more numbers than ever, it can be hard to understand the magnitude of the pandemic in North Carolina. N.C. Health News created three charts to help make sense of coronavirus in the state.
In the last week, Buncombe County’s percentage of positive tests has jumped from 2% to 4%. Although North Carolina’s statewide positivity rate hovers around 9%, the local increase indicates a rise in the coronavirus’ community prevalence.
In Western North Carolina, the main regional hospitals say they currently have more than enough capacity to provide care for area residents. But their approaches, protocols and treatment options for COVID-19 vary.
North Carolina’s COVID-19 trends continue to move in the wrong direction, according to a July 2 update by Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state’s secretary of health and human services. But in addition to tracking lab-confirmed cases of the disease, NCDHHS is also tracking COVID-like illnesses reported at health care facilities, which can give early warning of subsequent COVID-19 numbers.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic began, both LGBTQ youths and adults faced obstacles that others never had to think about. And COVID-19 has only exacerbated those disparities.
New research, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, suggests that humidity plays a greater role than does the temperature in the spread of the novel coronavirus. “Weather is just another factor that we need to be incorporating in our infectious disease modeling,” says lead author Jennifer Runkle, an environmental epidemiologist with the Asheville-based North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies at N.C. State University.
After reviewing death records, a county long-term care facility is now regarding 10 deaths previously attributed to COVID-19 as not caused by the coronavirus. The change will lower Buncombe’s total COVID-19 deaths to 30.
Masks are required, bars are closed and isolation fatigue is setting in. As Buncombe enters this new phase, Xpress took a look at the COVID-19 stats — both in Western North Carolina and in some likely points of origin for short-term visitors.