The mainstream media has been reporting about the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising, largely because of the delta variant.

What has not received the same amount of attention are the deaths from this increased number of cases.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports two numbers for cases and deaths.  One is for those who have a positive PCR test, and these are “confirmed” COVID cases and deaths.  The other is for those who had a negative PCR test but a positive antigen test and these are listed as “probable” COVID cases and deaths.

According to the NCDHHS website, the number of PCR confirmed COVID deaths on July 25 was 1, and Antigen or probable COVID deaths is 0.

The number of PCR deaths on July 23 was 3 and Antigen deaths 0.

The number of PCR deaths on July 22 was 5 and Antigen deaths 0.

The number of PCR deaths on July 21 was 3 and Antigen deaths 1.

The number of PCR deaths on July 20 was 2 and Antigen deaths 0.

The number of PCR deaths on July 19 was 7 and Antigen deaths 0.

By comparison, on Jan. 4, the number of confirmed PCR deaths was 100 and Antigen deaths 28.

And on Jan. 15, the number of PCR deaths was 105 and the number of Antigen deaths was 22.

The number of cases has shown an increase in the past month from June 25, when there were 313 PCR cases and 108 Antigen cases, to July 25, when there were 563 PCR cases and 201 Antigen cases reported. And on July 19 there were 1,362 PCR cases and 524 Antigen cases reported.

The number of hospitalizations has also showed a steady increase from 868 on July 23 to 1,031 on July 26.

According to the data reported by the NCDHHS, the number of cases and hospitalizations has increased, but so far the number of deaths from COVID has not shown much of an increase.