Youth Rally Led To COVID-19 Outbreak In Rockingham County

Rockingham County health officials said last week that all of their cases of COVID-19 could be traced to a church gathering. 

As of last week, Rockingham County had 14 active cases and two deaths related to the outbreak.

In a video posted to Facebook Friday, interim health director Susan Young says all of those cases can be traced back to a youth rally.

“And then it kind of went into a church congregation and kind of rapidly spread that way,” she says. “That's where kind of all our cases had originated.”

Young did not identify the church. She says most of the county's initial cases were people in their teens or twenties, but the two most recent cases involved patients in their 50s.

As of Monday, the county listed 19 cases confirmed by testing. It's unclear whether those additional cases were also connected to the youth rally breakout.

Young says the original cases were identified through hospitalizations or through contact tracing, which monitors people who have been physically close to them. 

Several counties are still using that method to track the spread of the disease although they are not required to do so.

 For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you're experiencing.