By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • There won’t be any meal deliveries by school bus Thursday and Friday so Hoke County Schools can deep clean the cafeterias and buildings.

Meals will resume Monday, May 4, Associate Superintendent Dr. Shannon Register said in an email.

“Hoke County Schools will have a deep cleaning closure as part of our continued proactive cleaning measures. We will close Thursday, April 30 and Friday, May 1 in order to facilitate a deep cleaning of all schools to include cafeterias and district buildings for the safety and health of all employees,” Register wrote.

One person who lives in Hoke County and has tested positive for COVID-19 reported that they work for Hoke County Schools, Hoke Health Department Director Helene Edwards said in an email Wednesday.

The school system is doing the deep clean out of caution, Register said. Remote learning continues during the two-day closure.

See the Hoke County Schools Facebook post about the deep cleaning closure here.

Hoke sees 78 cases of coronavirus

Hoke County was up to 78 known positive cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Health Department.

That includes two more employees at Canyon Hills, bringing the outbreak total at the child behavioral health facility to 19. (See story here)

One of the newest identified cases, a 47-year-old man who tested positive April 28, reported that he has been out of work for a month and has not traveled out of state. Health officials noted he is a case of community contact.

Other recently identified cases include:

•A 74-year-old woman who tested positive April 28, and is hospitalized at Scotland Healthcare
•A 72-year-old man who has been in the hospital since February, and tested positive April 28 (he remains hospitalized at Cape Fear Valley )
•A 46-year-old man who works at Smithfield Foods
•A 41-year-old man who reports being at multiple places with positive contacts in Moore County, who tested positive at Pinehurst Medical April 28
•A 65-year-old woman, who tested positive April 25
•A 67-year-old man who works at Mountaire Farms, who tested positive April 25
•A 43-year-old woman, the spouse of another person who tested positive, who tested positive April 27
•A 29-year-old woman, who tested positive April 27

Five people from Hoke County with coronavirus are in the hospital, according to health officials. That number includes one patient who was already hospitalized when he tested positive for COVID-19.

So far, 23 of the Hoke residents diagnosed with the virus have already recovered. Others remain in isolation at home.

More than 350 people in North Carolina, and more than 50,000 people across the United States have died of coronavirus-related causes.