All in Coronavirus
Lenoir County Public Schools opened the new academic year with a significant boost in enrollment and the anticipation that 2022-2023 will be a more normal year, an outlook apparently shared by students and parents as restrictions built about Covid-19 concerns continue to ease.
Governor Roy Cooper ended the state’s COVID-19 State of Emergency. With vaccines, treatments, and other tools to combat COVID-19 widely available, and with new legislation now providing the requested flexibility to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) and health care providers to continue to respond, the state is poised to continue comprehensive pandemic response without the need for the State of Emergency.
Every other year on the July 4th weekend, the descendants of Henry S. and Lady Belle Parker gather for a family reunion. Before this year, our last reunion took place in 2018. We set the next reunion for 2020 – and then 2021. Each time, COVID interfered. We decided to shoot for this July and finally made the reunion a reality.
During the COVID years, I experienced palpable disappointment. My grandson Jaxen graduated from Clayton High School – but Sandra and I could not attend. Granddaughter Courtney received her Associate of Nursing Degree from Pitt Community College – but we could not attend. Granddaughter Haley received her Associate of Arts degree from Pitt before transferring to East Carolina – but we could not attend.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of the COVID-19 treatment Veklury (remdesivir) to include pediatric patients 28 days of age and older weighing at least 3 kilograms (about 7 pounds) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing, who are:
We are pleased to announce that local Social Security offices are offering more in-person appointments and have resumed in-person services for people without an appointment.
The first reported case of COVID-19 in Jones County was April 7, 2020. Today, we are pleased to announce that there are ZERO reported cases of COVID-19.
The Lenoir County School Board held an emergency meeting on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 to discuss the face covering policy.
The City of Kinston has a current mask mandate requiring everyone to wear a mask inside of city buildings. Mayor Dontario Hardy said, "We will be taking the recommendations from the Governor's office and Secretary Kinsley's office here in the very near future."
Based on Governor Cooper’s Feb. 17th announcement and the data of covid cases declining in our state along with the rise in vaccination statuses, the College will move to masks/face coverings optional effective Monday, Feb. 21 on all LCC campuses.
UNC Lenoir Health Care is offering free COVID-19 testing Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Effective immediately Lenoir County residents may see different ambulances responding to their calls. Lenoir County Emergency Services (LCES) announced on Saturday, February 5th that a FEMA ambulance strike team will provide much-needed relief to their staff. “Our EMS call volume is increasing,” said LCES Director Murry Stroud. “Lenoir County EMS answered 12,416 calls for service in 2021, as compared to 11,085 in 2020, and 10,861 in 2019. Increasing system demand can be attributed, at least in part, to the COVID pandemic.”
A Maury Correctional offender with pre-existing medical conditions, who tested positive for COVID-19, has died at a hospital.
In the face of nationwide competition for testing supplies and shortages of testing staff, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is pulling all available levers to support existing testing sites, to open more sites across the state and to increase access to at-home collection kits.
Mayor Dontario Hardy issued a proclamation siting a temporary mandatory mask mandate for city facilities.
