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While it’s nowhere near the deadly outbreak noted earlier this year, COVID-19 still remains as a health risk.

Locally, the number of cases has increased steadily since early May. Those numbers rose dramatically last week, according to the latest report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS).

The number of cases nearly doubled in Hertford County over a one-week period, rising to 49 as of June 8. There were 25 cases in Hertford County as of June 1.

There were also double-digit increases in the number of cases in Northampton and Bertie counties. Northampton had 52 cases as of June 8, up from 36 the previous week. Bertie’s cases increased by 10 over the same time period (45 as of June 8, compared to 35 as of June 1).

There were 11 cases of COVID-19 in Gates County as of June 8, up from five cases one week earlier.

Comparatively, there were only 14 combined cases of the virus in the R-C area as of April 27 (five in Northampton; four in Bertie; three in Hertford, and two in Gates).

The virus is also to blame for the loss of six more local lives over the past two weeks. During that time period, Hertford, Bertie, and Northampton lost two residents each to complications with COVID-19.

Since the pandemic began in March of 2020, the virus has claimed a total of 261 lives across the Roanoke-Chowan area (86 in Northampton; 85 in Hertford; 70 in Bertie; and 20 in Gates).

The NCDHHS has moved Bertie and Hertford back into the “high risk” category for COVID-19 placing a strain on the healthcare system. All totaled, 24 of the state’s 100 counties are in this category, an increase of 11 from the previous week.

Gates and Northampton are listed among the “medium risk” counties.

Statewide, COVID-19 cases have increased from 2,841 the week ending March 26 to 24,941 the week ending June 4.

While the number of statewide cases are on the rise, the current strain of the virus (Omicron BA. 2.12.1) isn’t as deadly as its predecessor. There were 22 deaths from COVID in the state during the week ending June 4. During the worst outbreak thus far, there 753 deaths statewide the week ending Jan. 29, 2022.

For the week ending June 4, there was a daily average of 730 individuals hospitalized statewide with COVID-19. Seventy-five of those patients were in ICU.

The week ending Jan. 29, there was a daily average of 5,049 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19, with 808 of those patients in ICU.