The Orange County Health Department recently launched a video series to help answer community questions and topics as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Shared on the department’s YouTube page Friday, the video features Orange County Health Director Quintana Stewart, Emergency Services Director Dinah Jeffries and the health department’s Finance Director Rebecca Crawford answering questions from Orange County Health Communications Director Kristin Prelipp. A new monthly series, the October edition allowed three officials to directly share details about the ongoing local response to COVID-19.

Stewart begins the video with an update on the county’s testing data and trends, saying the community is following a similar trajectory to the rest of North Carolina this month.

“We are seeing an increase in cases across the state, as well as here in Orange County,” describes Stewart. “Our new cases here are occurring across the county and not in one specific area. This may be indicative that community members are getting COVID-19 fatigue and we’re getting tired.”

The health department director credits Orange County residents for their work to keep their case count relatively stable, outside of spikes in August when UNC students returned to campus.

“I just want to say we’ve done a great job, we’re going to continue and get through this,” she says. “But I’d be remiss to not point out our case count is going in the wrong direction.”

Stewart cites several local trends showing slight increases in spread of the virus since late September. Total cases, reported COVID-like illnesses and percentage of positive tests are some of those, which are data points the health department and many other organizations use to best measure spread. As of Monday, the county’s cases now sit just less than 3,000 total among residents.

The Orange County Health director speaks to the percentage of positive tests in the video, saying the current 3% rate is good compared to the desired benchmark of 5% or less.

“But again,” Stewart says, “I want to encourage folks to remain vigilant because we have seen times in the last couple of weeks where we were as low as 1.3% positive. We want to get that number back down if we can. But kudos, because we are staying under 5% and that is the ultimate goal.”

In addition to the community update, the group speaks about several topics at the front of the community’s mind this month. Stewart and Jeffries discuss how their departments’ have cooperated to create the local response to the pandemic, while also giving advice for how to safely celebrate Halloween at the end of October.

Crawford speaks about the local school districts’ current plans to continue with remote learning through the end of 2020. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper gave school districts permission to begin seeking full in-person instruction teaching models with public health measures in place at the start of October. Orange County’s two school districts, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools, have recently begun to discuss plans for a hybrid instruction model.

Crawford discusses the health department’s role when it comes to schools and reopening process, saying it’s largely an advisory role to supplement the decisions of the elected officials running the individual systems.

“The school district leaders and boards of education are the experts about education and children, not the health department,” she said. “We can make recommendations and provide information and answer questions, but the health department doesn’t have the statutory authority to open and close schools.”

The full Public Health Chat video from the Orange County Health Department can be found on its YouTube page, with local COVID-19 data available on the county’s website.

Photo via the Orange County Health Department.

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