Local News

Community Report: Bennington County Has Seen The Most COVID Cases Per Capita Of Any Vt. County

Vermont Public | By Mary Williams Engisch

Published January 23, 2021 at 8:29 AM EST

The view from Merck Forest in Rupert, looking out at the Taconic Mountains, with a treed and snowy hillside in the foreground, against a blue sky — Bennington County, home to the Taconic Mountains, has seen the most coronavirus cases per 10,000 residents of any county in Vermont. Though Chittenden County has seen more cases total, Bennington's case counts stand out when population size is considered.

In recent days, Bennington County has surpassed Vermont's most populous county when it comes to the number of COVID-19 cases identified per 10,000 residents.On Friday, Jan. 22, Bennington counted 27 new coronavirus cases, to total 234.9 cases per 10,000 residents. Chittenden County — which has seen the bulk of Vermont's total cases, at 3,773 since the pandemic began — now ranks second to Bennington when you factor in population, with 224.7 cases per 10,000 people. Bennington County has seen a total of 864 cases since the pandemic began.

Tiffany Tan is a reporter for The Bennington Banner and she spoke to VPR's Community Report about the high numbers and what might be causing the upward trend.

Read the article, "Three new COVID-19 deaths reported; Bennington County has state's highest infection rate," in The Bennington Banner, here.

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