DARE COUNTY, N.C. — Dare County officials said they are seeing an increase of community spread cases of COVID-19 over the past week.
"Over the past week, we have seen a growing number of individuals who have tested positive but do not know where they acquired the virus," Dare County Department of Health & Human Services said in a news release.
The county said it has seen a growing number of positive cases among teens and young adults. In those cases, the individuals experienced moderate to almost no symptoms.
This is causing concern to officials who say asymptomatic individuals can spread the new virus to older, more vulnerable populations.
The number of positive cases in the county is at 77 as of Friday. Twenty-seven of those cases are isolating at home.
Fourty-one are residents and 36 are non-residents.
There have been 17 new cases as of Tuesday, officials said.
Dare County updated its COVID-19 emergency declaration to state that face coverings must be worn in indoor and outdoor public spaces where social distancing cannot be maintained.
That went into effect on June 21.
North Carolina reached 58,818 confirmed cases of coronavirus today, with 1,303 COVID-19 deaths. That bumps the state's total number of cases (since March) higher than Virginia's, following a recent June spike.