Community Corner

COVID-19: This Is The Least Dangerous County In The Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metro Area

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,027,0 ...

2021-06-09

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,027,029 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 591,694 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

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In the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area, located in North Carolina, a total of 42,353 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 7,583 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 10,095 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Durham-Chapel Hill is being driven by one area in particular.

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The broader Durham metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Orange County in North Carolina has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 8,570 infections in Orange County, or 5,996 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Orange County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Durham metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 71 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Orange County, below the 88 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Durham-Chapel Hill metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 7, 2021.

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