The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has announced changes to its COVID-19 dashboard and state-funded testing sites as the federal public health emergency comes to an end in May and COVID-19 becomes part of a routine part of public health.
Dr. Susan Kansagra, Director of the NCDHHS Division of Public Health, said COVID-19 isn't gone but it poses a lesser threat than in the past.
"While we continue to see illness and deaths from COVID-19, it is no longer the threat it once was thanks to testing, vaccines and treatment," said Kansagra, "As we evolve our response to the more routine nature of COVID-19 going forward, these indicators will help us monitor our health care capacity from respiratory illness including COVID-19 and adjust our response if needed."
NCDHHS will continue to track data to monitor COVID-19 and will now incorporate it into other respiratory illness data.
COVID-19 vaccination data will be updated monthly for now, because Kansagra said the numbers are not changing as rapidly, and it will no longer be updated after May 31.
NCDHHS will also be ending its remaining community testing sites on March 31.
