More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Orange County reached a sobering benchmark.

With one death reported from county residents in the last week, Orange County registered its 100th death from COVID-19, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The first death from COVID-19 in Orange County occurred on April 2, 2020, according to data from North Carolina Health & Human Services, at PruittHealth – Carolina Point, which was a site of the county’s largest reported outbreak.

Orange County has reported 29 total deaths from COVID-19 in 2021. Overall, the state of North Carolina has reported 12,085 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began last year.

This metric, however, has significantly decreased in the new year as coronavirus vaccination efforts increased across North Carolina. Frontline healthcare workers became the first group of people to receive the vaccine in December, while residents ages 65 and up became eligible in January. Since then, according to Orange County’s Health Department, 8,440 residents have received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 5,272 residents have been fully vaccinated.

Last week, Governor Roy Cooper announced that all North Carolina residents over the age of 16 will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine beginning on April 7 — marking yet another instance that the state has moved up the timetable so more residents can get the vaccine.

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