Yesterday, North Carolina had the most reported cases of COVID-19 yet.
Hospitalizations have not hit their mid-summer peaks. However there is only about a 15% gap between yesterday’s hospital count and the peak July hospital census. Hospitalizations have increased by ~30% in under a month. North Carolina’s positivity rate is stuck in a band between 6% to 7% on a daily basis right now so that has not accelerated and the university super-clusters got broken when UNC-Chapel Hill went online. At the same time, the state is still moving towards less restrictive phased re-opening even as the case counts and hospitalization counts are rebounding off of local minimas that were far higher than the late spring local minimas.
Now onto some more encouraging news:
Additional data are in: More than 333,000 voters cast ballots on the first day of in-person early voting in North Carolina. We *believe* that is a one-day early voting record, beating the 304,000 total on Friday, November 4, 2016. Way to go NC voters!#ncpol#YourVoteCountsNC
— NCSBE (@NCSBE) October 16, 2020
Every vote that is received yesterday and today and tomorrow removes a miniscule amount of variance from the final range of possible results. Candidates and campaigns that are ahead by a notable amount want the last three weeks of the race to be low variance. Everyone who votes early also makes any election day poll-watching shenanigans marginally less effective as lines will be shorter than they otherwise would be and resources to deal with assholes will be more readily available and less exhausted. I will be voting early on Monday at the senior center 2 miles from my house.