Burlington Reporter

Alamance County has lower occurrences of COVID-19 compared to neighboring Chatham, Guilford and Orange counties. 

Public Health Director Stacie Saunders attributes this to “demographics, testing capacity and focus on congregate living facilities,” according to Times-News.

According to WXII12, Alamance County has had 95 positive cases and one death, Chatham county has had 287 cases and six deaths, Guilford had 358 cases and 23 deaths, and Orange had 217 cases and 15 deaths.

Caswell County was the only county that had less cases, with 19 cases and no deaths.

“I think it's probably likely a few things,” Saunders said according to Times-News. “Geographically and demographically we look a little different. We aren’t quite the same as some of our neighbors. We have quite a few rural areas so I think that might be in play as most of our urban areas are congregated along the interstate and as you get just a little past that we become pretty rural.”

Social factors can influence the confirmed case count. Access to transportation so residents can get tested is one thing. Saunders said that if more testing sites were introduced, including mobile testing, then it could more accurately reflect the COVID-19 case count, according to Times-News.

Alamance County took action to reduce outbreaks. They created limitations early on in living facilities to reduce spread, which also means less cases.

Also, those who were told to self-isolate but were not tested and suspected to have the virus are not included in the overall case count.

“We’d really like people to observe that stay-at-home order and take general precautions,” said Saunders, according to Times-News. “The idea behind those strategies is the less we interact with each other, the less likely we are to expose each other. Until a vaccine is created and able to be given widely, these precautions, even when restrictions are lifted, we’ll be depending on these.”

Statewide, Mecklenburg County has the most cases and deaths, at 1,567 and 44, respectively.