By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Feb. 19 — Approximately one in five Page County residents have now received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health reported that 4,893 people in Page had received at least the first dose, with 1,502 county residents fully vaccinated.
Given its relative population, that puts Page County right about where it should be among other jurisdictions within the Lord Fairfax Health District. Below is a breakdown of vaccine doses administered and those who have been fully vaccinated (two doses) across the health district as of Friday’s report:
• 14,385 doses administered, 5,264 fully vaccinated — City of Winchester;
• 12,624 doses administered, 4,407 fully vaccinated — Frederick County;
• 10,795 doses administered, 3,886 fully vaccinated — Shenandoah County;
• 7,356 doses administered, 2,600 fully vaccinated — Warren County;
• 4,893 doses administered, 1,502 fully vaccinated — Page County;
• 4,109 doses administered, 1,568 fully vaccinated — Clarke County.
Page County has reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 since Monday, with 13 of those cases surfacing in the past two days. On Monday, the county reported no cases for only the second time since Nov. 15. Page has seen two new hospitalizations due to the virus this week, but no deaths related to the pandemic have been reported in the county since Feb. 4.
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the new cases of COVID-19 reported since Monday in Page County surfaced in the following areas:
• 11 cases — Stanley area (22851);
• 6 cases — Luray area (22835);
• 1 case — Shenandoah area (22849).
Page County’s seven-day positivity rate is less than half of what it was a month ago, and currently sits at 9.8 percent. For most of December and January, Page lead the health district with a positivity rate that hovered around 20 percent for nearly six weeks, reaching a height of nearly 23 percent. On Feb. 9, it dipped down as low as 8.2 percent.
All six jurisdictions within the Lord Fairfax Health District have fallen below the seven-day positivity rate threshold of 10 percent that health officials were seeking. However, after falling off the top spot for a few weeks, Page County once again leads the district. Here’s a comparison of seven-day positivity rates across the health district as of Friday morning:
• 9.8% — Page County;
• 8.2% — Frederick County;
• 7.6% — Clarke County;
• 6.7% — Shenandoah County;
• 6.5% — City of Winchester;
• 4.5% — Warren County.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 52 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, after reporting 50 on Thursday and 27 on Wednesday. The health district has reported less than 100 new cases each of the last nine days, after reporting more than 100 cases per day for most of the last two months.
The district has reported 13 new hospitalizations and four new deaths related to the pandemic since Monday. Frederick County reported two of the deaths, while Clarke and Shenandoah counties each had one.
Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have also seen a dramatic slow down in COVID-19 data over the past two weeks. On Friday, the city reported only three new cases, while the county had 14. This week the two jurisdictions combined only reported three hospitalizations and one death.
Statewide, 2,034 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday. Virginia’s daily case count has been below 3,000 for six straight days, after coming in at above 3,000 all but seven days since Dec. 5.
Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate has been declining for 40 consecutive days and now sits at 8.2 percent — the lowest rate since Dec. 1. That same statewide rate stood at 16.8 percent on Jan. 10.
Statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue to drop and currently sit at 1,671, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association — down 162 since Monday. Among those patients, 329 are being treated in intensive care units — down 69 over the last five days. Among those, 204 are currently on ventilators — down 47 since Monday.
As of Friday morning, Virginia had administered more than 1.5 million vaccines for COVID-19, with nearly 1.1 million people statewide being vaccinated with at least one dose — about 12.8 percent of the state’s overall population. A total of 420,574 people in Virginia have been fully vaccinated.
Currently, an average of 35,745 doses of the vaccine are being administered each day in Virginia.
The state health department has reported 86 deaths statewide related to the pandemic since Monday. A total of 7,098 people have died from COVID-19 in Virginia since March 14 — 2,278 (or 32 percent) since Christmas.
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Thank you to all health workers who are helping to obtain vaccine and those who are helping get it into arms in Page County!