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Polk County is listed as low impact

POLK COUNTY—Polk County residents have a new alert page from the state to track COVID-19. 

Governor Roy Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced this week a new COVID-19 county alert system to pinpoint counties with the highest levels of viral spread. Polk County is listed as low impact with its hospital also low impact. 

The state also sent recommendations to counties to keep the numbers down. 

State officials said the new system will give local leaders another tool to understand how their county is faring and to make decisions about actions to slow the viral spread. 

The state has a map that will be updated every 4 weeks. 

“By pinpointing counties with high virus transmission and asking everyone in those counties to work with us and do more right now to slow the spread of the virus, we can succeed,” Gov. Cooper said this week. “It can help bring down their case rates, keep their communities safer, save lives and keep their hospital systems working.” 

Dr. Cohen said it’s going to take all of us working together to avoid tightening restrictions like so many other states are doing now. 

“The COVID-19 Alert System gives North Carolinians an easy way to see how their county is doing and know what they can do to protect their family and neighbors and slow the spread of this virus,” Dr. Cohen said. 

North Carolina’s counties are categorized in 3 tiers, with yellow being significant community spread, orange being substantial community spread and red being critical community spread. Polk County is currently listed as yellow.