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North Carolina reported a record increase in cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations on Saturday.

The state reported that there have been 6,018 cases since Friday. North Carolina says there are 2,171 people with COVID-19 in the state’s hospitals. That’s up 14 from a day earlier.

“In less than a week, we went from exceeding 5,000 new cases reported in one day to exceeding 6,000,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state’s health secretary. “This is very worrisome. We are seeing our highest rates of tests that come back positive despite the fact we are doing a lot of testing. This indicates we have even more viral spread across our state right now.”

North Carolina also has a record number of people in intensive care, Cohen said. A total of 5,516 North Carolinians have died from the virus, an increase of 49 since Friday, the health department said.

The health secretary urged residents to take personal responsibility for their actions to slow the spread of the virus by wearing masks, maintaining distance from other people and washing hands often.

“We are looking at what further actions we can take as a state to protect North Carolinians and save lives,” Cohen said.

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