Dartmouth Events

Spatial components of COVID

Dr. Michael Emch Professor and Chair of Geography, UNC "Spatial components of COVID-19 in North Carolina: Geographic and racial-ethnic disparities in virus testing"

Tuesday, November 10, 2020
3:30pm – 5:00pm
Zoom
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

This talk will describe two case studies focusing on spatial and demographic patterns of COVID-19 in
North Carolina. The first is an analysis of SARS-CoV-2 testing data during the first three months of
the state’s COVID-19 pandemic to examine are racial, ethnic, and urban-rural disparities.
Demographic and residential data were used to reconstruct patterns of testing across race-ethnicity
groups and rural-urban populations separately. Across the entire sample, 13.1% (38,750 of 295,642)
of tests were positive. Within racial-ethnic groups, 11.5% of all tests were positive among non-Latinx
(NL) Whites, 22.0% for NL Blacks, and 66.5% for people of Latinx ethnicity. The test positivity rate
was higher among people living in rural areas across all racial-ethnic groups. These results suggest
that access to testing needs to be increased in North Carolina, especially in Latinx, Black and other
historically marginalized populations. The second case study is an analysis of seroprevalence in
central North Carolina. Testing bottlenecks have prevented public health officials from being able to
track SARS-CoV-2 spread. Serological tests offer an advantage over molecular testing by evaluating
prior exposure at the population level. This is a key factor to getting a better picture of the true
number of infections in our communities because we are likely undercounting due to asymptomatic
cases. This talk will describe early results of a 12-month hospital remnant seroprevalence study.
 

Email kelly.l.palmer@dartmouth.edu for zoom details


 

For more information, contact:
Kelly Palmer

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.