Big rally crowd great for Trump, maybe not so great for NC's fight against coronavirus
Thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters showed up for a Tuesday night rally in Winston-Salem. Now, area health officials worry that the event could become a superspreader of the coronavirus across North Carolina.
"It was a fantastic event, just in terms of the turnout, which doubled what we were expecting," Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said Wednesday. "People came from all over the state to be there in Winston-Salem. That was really cool."
Not so cool, according to Forsyth County Health Director Joshua Swift, was the fact that most in the crowd – estimates of the crowd size range from 7,000 to 15,000 – weren't wearing masks and were packed close together in bleachers and a fenced-off area at Smith Reynolds Airport.
"Any large event where there’s a lot of people, we have concerns, especially when people may or not be wearing a mask," Swift said. '[That's for] any event, whether it’s really very large, like yesterday’s event with over 10,000 people or events that have 100 or 50."
Trump campaign officials spoke with county officials ahead of the rally and made sure everyone attending had their temperature checked and asked that masks be required. Still, most people ignored the mask requirement.
Swift said it’s too soon to know if there will be a spike in coronavirus cases from the rally, but officials should know within a week or two.
"There’s usually a two-week window. Most people who were exposed will have symptoms within five to six days,” he said.
During a Wednesday meeting with White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, Gov. Roy Cooper, who was a favorite target of Trump during the rally, spoke about the need for "elected leaders and candidates to lead by example on the campaign trail" by requiring face coverings and social distancing at events, according to a statement from the Governor's Office.
Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, also discussed with Birx the state's strategy to slowly reopen businesses and resume social activities to keep virus cases from spiking.
"They discussed North Carolina’s multi-prong approach, which includes slowing the spread through prevention, knowing who has been exposed to COVID-19 through testing and tracing, and supporting people staying home when needed through isolation and quarantine supports," the statement from the Governor's Office said. "Dr. Birx offered her expertise, sharing lessons learned from other states, and offering to surge testing resources on college campuses."
Swift said health officials will monitor local cases, and then contact tracers would alert people in close contact with those who were infected, even if they’re outside the county, that they may have been exposed to the virus.
He noted that there wasn't an increase in infections following protests for racial justice this summer, when hundreds of people were in the streets.
