Nearly 15,000 North Carolina residents have recovered from COVID-19, NCDHHS says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - North Carolina health officials say nearly 15,000 residents have recovered from the coronavirus.

In a Monday update, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported that 14,954 patients are presumed to be recovered from COVID-19.

There are currently 23,964 laboratory-confirmed cases in the state, and 754 residents have died while 627 are currently hospitalized.

The presumed 14,954 North Carolina residents who have recovered would represent approximately 62 percent of the state’s confirmed cases.

Officials say the estimated number of patients presumed to be recovered from symptoms from COVID-19 is used in combination with other measures to provide a general sense of how many people with COVID-19 have likely recovered from symptoms.

Health leaders estimate an average recovery time of 14 days from the date of test for non-fatal COVID-19 cases who were not hospitalized, or if hospitalization status is unknown.

The estimated average recovery time is 28 days from the date of the test for hospitalized non-fatal COVID-19 cases. Estimates are used since patient-specific data on the actual time to recovery of all symptoms are not available for all COVID-19 cases in North Carolina.

“It is important to note that patients’ actual recovery times could be shorter or longer depending on the severity of illness. This interval was chosen based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidance, and in consultation with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state health departments,” a statement on the website read.

An average recovery time of two weeks from illness onset for mild cases and three–six weeks for patients with severe or critical disease was reported by WHO.

These estimates are unrelated to the number of cases that are or are not still infectious, and cannot account for other factors that could impact a patient’s recovery time or disease severity, such as age and underlying health conditions.

Doctors and scientists do not yet know if patients who have recovered are protected with natural immunity from getting COVID-19 again.