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6:20 am
The Transportation Security Administration announced that it examined more than 1 million people the day after Christmas.
The day after Christmas was the second most traveled day since the pandemic began. The busiest day happened on Christmas Eve, when the TSA tracked 1,191,123 people.
The daily figures for this holiday season are about half the number of travelers selected on the same day in 2019.
TSA figures come at a time when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention urges Americans to stay home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As cases continue to rise after Thanksgiving-related travel, health experts warn that a similar increase is likely to occur in a few weeks because of holiday-related travel.
Monday morning headlines
North Carolina residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities will begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.
CVS and Walgreens are organizing the vaccines, but due to privacy concerns, they are not identifying the specific locations that will receive the vaccines first.
We know that CVS is administering vaccines at nearly 900 facilities in North Carolina and at more than 40,000 across the country, starting on Monday. The group hopes to vaccinate up to 4 million residents and employees.
CVS said it will begin offering the vaccine to the general public next year.
North Carolina’s COVID-19 metrics, meanwhile, remain at or near record levels.
To date, more than half a million people have tested positive for the virus in North Carolina, with at least 6,549 dying from it. The updated figures will be released around noon.
DOMAIN
9 pm
President Donald Trump signs the COVID-19 relief bill after being delayed for nearly a week.
The president announced on Sunday that he signed the bipartisan bill that his own representatives led, but that earlier in the week he called it a disgrace.
In a statement, the president said he was signing the bill, but also asked Congress to make changes to it.
12:48 pm
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 2,898 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, increasing the total number of cases across the state to 516,828.
The positive daily percentage continues to trend in the wrong direction and increased 1.5%, bringing the total to 11.9%. The goal, defined by NCDHHS officials, is to stay at around 5%.
As of Sunday afternoon, 100 more people are currently in the hospital with COVID-19. For almost an entire week, the number of hospitalizations was over 3,000.
Twenty-three more people have died from complications from the virus since Saturday, bringing the total to 6,549.
In total, 6,737,864 tests were completed, an increase of 29,776 over Saturday.
SATURDAY
1:40 pm
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released new COVID-19 numbers for the state on Saturday for the first time in three days.
The figures were not released on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
The daily case increases for the past three days are as follows:
December 24: 7,703
De. 25: 6,345
December 26: 5,371
In the past few days, North Carolina has exceeded 500,000 cases since the pandemic began.
Currently, 3,023 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state. The number of hospitalizations has been over 3,000 since December 21.
The positive percentage in the state is 10.4%. The goal is to stay at around 5%.
10:29
A criminal at the Nash Correctional Institution who was diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 died on Christmas Eve, prison officials said.
The 81-year-old criminal had many latent medical problems. He tested positive for COVID-19 on December 8 and was hospitalized on December 20.
“We sympathize with the criminal’s family, since losing a loved one is difficult, but especially during the holiday season,” said Todd Ishee, prison commissioner. “We continue to work diligently to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our prisons because the health and safety of employees and the offending population remains our top priority.”
9 am
A look at the state’s “County Alert System” shows the latest trends in the spread of communities in central North Carolina.
Wake and Durham counties are in the orange zone – with “substantial” levels of community spread.
Cumberland County is in the red zone – with “critical” spread.
The latest update shows that more than 90 percent of the state is in the red or orange zones.
In the past two weeks, the number of counties in the red zone has increased from 48 to 65.
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