Craven County has 839 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 12:00 p.m. on August 18, 2020. Out of the 839 confirmed positive cases, 648 of those individuals have recovered, are doing well, and are out of isolation. The recovered cases completed the necessary isolation requirement and have been free of COVID-19 symptoms for at least 72 hours.  Of the 839 cases, 12 have been related to out of state travel, 161 are from community transmission, 577 are a direct contact with a previously confirmed positive case, and 89 are still being investigated.  There have been 21 deaths related to COVID-19. Nine of the active COVID-19 cases are currently hospitalized.

A twenty-first Craven County resident died from complications related to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on August 17, 2020. The individual was tested for COVID-19 on July 21, 2020 and resulted positive on July 25, 2020. The death was reported to the Craven County Health Department on August 18, 2020. The individual had several underlying health conditions. To protect the family’s privacy, no further information about the individual will be released.

Craven County citizens are encouraged to use reputable sources of information to learn more about COVID-19 cases in Craven County and North Carolina.  Reputable sources of information include the Craven County Health Department and NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) websites.

The Craven County Health Department works with state, commercial, and private labs to track the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Craven County. Health care providers determine which lab they send their COVID-19 tests to.

Craven County will continue to track and post the number of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases; however, it is important to recognize there are many people with COVID-19 who will not be included in daily counts of laboratory-confirmed cases, including:

• People who had minimal or no symptoms and were not tested.
• People who had symptoms but did not seek medical care.
• People who sought medical care but were not tested.
• People with COVID-19 in whom the virus was not detected by testing.

The number of laboratory-confirmed cases will increasingly provide a limited picture of the spread of infections in Craven County as COVID-19 becomes more widespread and the number of infected people who are not included in the daily counts of laboratory-confirmed cases increases.