The leaders of Greensboro, North Carolina-Guildford County are closely monitoring the increasing number of cases and positive rates in our region. Although restrictions have not been completely excluded, Commissioner Skip Alston said that we have not yet reached that time. .

Since the Thanksgiving holiday, the number of cases and the percentage of positives have started to increase, which is expected by health experts and local officials.

"This is worrying but not surprising, because when we see the Thanksgiving peak again, we think these numbers may fall in the next few weeks, and then may rise after Christmas. So it will pick up The next 30 days or so will become a roller coaster," Alston said.

Arsen said that if the 14-day positive rate reaches 8%, they will carefully review the data and discuss the next steps with health experts.

He said: “I don’t think we’re there yet. Again, we’re monitoring. We won’t wait until 8% to monitor it. We’ll really be a good indication of what we might have done around January, and as We are also a little worried about the emergence of this new COVID virus."

Last year, families flocked to get tested before and after the holidays, but Steven Marshall, the nurse manager of the clinic in charge of COVID at Cone Health, said that this year looks a little different. 

He said: "We have seen a slight increase in positive interest rates, but after Thanksgiving, we have not seen demand growth close to the increase after Thanksgiving last year."

Marshall said the healthcare provider has multiple appointments open in all three counties they serve, and currently only about 25% of testing appointments are filled. 

He said: "This is mainly because the vaccine has not been vaccinated. Many of the tests we are doing are repeated tests on individuals who need to be tested by their employer because they have not been vaccinated." 

Alston said that they have and will continue to follow medical experts' advice on how to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"This is the advice we followed when canceling the authorization of masks because they said they thought it was okay to do so. If we let them come back and they saw different things with a professional vision, then we will take corresponding actions." He said. 

Marshall said that in the days around Christmas, the demand for testing may pick up again. 

Cone Health asks patients not to use the emergency room for testing because it is already crowded with patients.

You can visit the Cone Health Urgent Care site for testing, or visit conehealth.com/testing for a list of sites.

Information can also be obtained by calling 336-890-1188. There, you can obtain test information for the three main counties served by Cone Health.

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