• By Todd Luck
• Posted Thursday, December 10, 2020

Forsyth County upgraded to red COVID alert

Due to the critical community spread of COVID-19, Forsyth County’s COVID-19 County Alert has been upgraded to red by the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS).

The state’s COVID-19 County Alert system uses a combination of case rate, the percent of tests that are positive and hospital impact to categorize counties into three tiers: Yellow, Orange and Red. There are currently 48 counties in the red tier, including Guilford, Davidson, Yadkin and Surry.

Forsyth County’s current case count is 15,134, its percent positive rate is 18.9 percent and 99 Forsyth County residents are in Forsyth County hospitals.

NC DHHS advises residents in all North Carolina counties to continue wearing a mask, social distancing, hand washing, getting a flu shot, limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people and avoiding large crowds. In addition to that guidance, individuals in red and orange counties are advised to take these additional precautions:

• Limit mixing between households and minimize the number of people in your social circle

• Avoid settings where people congregate, like outdoor bars and night spots (in NC, indoor bars remain closed and indoor night spots must remain below indoor mass gathering limits)

• If patronizing restaurants, consider ordering take out from restaurants and/or eating outdoors socially distanced

• Individuals who are high-risk for developing serious illness should consider staying at home as much as possible

• Reduce your public interactions to mainly essential activities like going to work or school, caring for family members, buying food, getting health care or picking up medications

In addition, a modified Stay at Home Order will go into effect statewide at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11. Individuals should stay at home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. unless an exception applies, and many businesses must close at 10 p.m.

For more information, visit: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/