Forsyth County's top health official says the county's COVID-19 numbers are heading in the wrong direction.
By nearly every metric, the virus is hitting the county hard. During a presentation to the county commission Thursday, Public Health Director Joshua Swift said the county is now averaging about 100 new cases per day.
“And to put this in perspective, in August and early September, we were averaging only thirty to thirty-five cases per day," said Swift.
The county's test positivity rate has also shot up to 13.2%, from 4.6% in late September. And the new case incidence rate has nearly quadrupled in the same time frame.
“We went from high risk in late September, early October to now, late October, early November – we're in the highest risk [category]," he said.
Swift urged residents to rethink their holiday plans in order to slow the spread of the virus.
His warning came eight months to the day after Forsyth County reported its first case of COVID-19.