More Hatteras Island restaurants close after COVID-19 case series

At least five restaurants on Hatteras Island are currently closed after a series of positive COVID-19 tests among employees who attended a recent private meeting.

The Quarterdeck Restaurant & Bar and the Frisco Sandwich Company were the first to announce that they would temporarily close last week after learning that some employees had been in direct contact with someone who tested positive.

Over the weekend, after 16 new positive coronavirus cases reported in Dare County, several other restaurants announced they would be closing because employees tested positive or as a precaution while awaiting test results.

Dare County health officials say the recent increase in cases is mainly due to a large group of local residents who attend a social gathering and do not wear masks or practice social distancing. As of Tuesday morning, the county’s case count was 97.

Since Friday, there have been 20 new positive cases. Of these 20 cases, 18 are residents and 2 are nonresidents.

Of the 18 resident cases:

• 12 of the cases are connected. All 12 individuals are known or relatives and acquired the virus through direct contact. 4 are symptomatic and 8 are asymptomatic.
• 3 of the cases are family members, all symptomatic, who acquired the virus from another family member whose positive result was reported on 6/24.
• 1 is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with an individual whose positive result was reported on 6/24.
• 2 other cases are not connected. One is asymptomatic and the other is symptomatic, and both most likely acquired the virus by community spread.

Of the 2 non-resident cases:

• The cases are not connected.
• One is asymptomatic and acquired the virus through direct contact outside of Dare County
• One is symptomatic and most likely acquired the virus through community spread outside of Dare County.

The monitoring of the contract has been completed and the direct contacts provided by these 18 residents have been identified, notified and directed to quarantine for 14 days from the last exposure date with the positive case. Calls are made to verify compliance with the quarantine directive and legal action can be taken for individuals who violate quarantine and isolation orders. Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who have been exposed to a contagious disease to see if they get sick. Isolation separates people sick with a contagious disease from people who are not sick. Isolation and quarantine are public health tools to help protect the public by avoiding exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease.

Dare County DHHS monitors and evaluates 4 key metric partners with disease research and surveillance. The metrics are:

• Number of Tests
• Confirmed cases
• Positive tests as a percentage of total tests
• COVID as disease surveillance

“Last week we obtained the highest number of COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed by healthcare providers in Dare County in 578 tests. This brings the total number of tests conducted from the beginning of March to 2,569. We had 44 positive cases between June 22 and 28, “health officials said in a statement. “The percentage of positive tests to general tests in Dare County since we started testing in early March increased slightly this week to 3.62%. The positive percentage to the total test last week was 7.6%. Syndromic surveillance of people who presented to the emergency department with symptoms similar to COVID-19 increased this week. We are also seeing an increase in the number of sick people reporting to the area’s urgent care centers. These charts can be found on the Dare County website at www.darenc.com/covid19 “.

“The spread of COVID-19 is not a local versus visitor problem. The spread we are currently seeing is local to local because people are not following the guidelines, ”said Sheila Davis, director of Dare’s Department of Health and Human Services.