The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released their daily update involving coronavirus cases within the state.
As of Thursday, there are now 13,397 cases, 525 people hospitalized and 507 coronavirus related deaths.
That is 639 new cases and 30 additional deaths from Wednesday.
A total of 171,328 people in North Carolina have now been tested. 99 counties in North Carolina report having coronavirus cases.
On Friday, May 8 North Carolina is set to enter Phase One of reopening. The order will take effect at 5 p.m. and is set to expire at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 22. However, the end of this order does not necessarily mean the state will move to Phase Two; if the indicators are not in the right place, Cooper says state officials will extend Phase One to longer than two weeks.
Officials said, as they ramp up testing, there will be more laboratory-confirmed cases. Looking at what percent of total tests are positive helps them understand whether laboratory-confirmed cases are increasing in comparison to the number of tests conducted.
