By Randy Arrington
LURAY, April 30 — The number of reported COVID-19 cases continues to climb locally and across the state, along with Virginia’s death toll related to the pandemic.
The Virginia Department of Health reported nine new cases in Page County on Thursday morning, along with one new hospitalization. Page has now seen multiple new cases of the virus reported for nine consecutive days. During that time period, 11 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and one has died, according to VDH.
Since the first case was reported by VDH on March 31, Page County has now reached a total of 100 cases of the novel coronavirus. On April 15, there were only six reported cases.
At least 77 cases can be linked to residents and staff members of Skyview Springs Rehab and Nursing Center in Luray. Skyview first reported that a resident had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 21. All residents and staff were tested the next day. On April 25, Page County hit a one-day high and reported 52 new cases of the virus.
As of Wednesday, there were no new cases reported at Skyview Springs, or other long term care facilities in Luray and Elkton.
Among the 216 outbreaks of COVID-19 across the state being reported by VDH Thursday morning, 120 of them (or 55.6 percent) are within long term care facilities, where there have been 1,537 cases reported and 118 deaths (21.4 percent of all COVID-19-related fatalities in Virginia).
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 28 new cases on Thursday morning, with most concentrated in Shenandoah (13) and Page (9) counties. Shenandoah County now has the highest number of reported cases in the district. A breakdown of total cases by jurisdiction within the local health district is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 108 — Shenandoah County (12-2)
- 105 — Frederick County (12-1)
- 100 — Page County (11-1)
- 52 — Warren County (4-0)
- 37 — City of Winchester (1-0)
- 8 — Clarke County (1-0)
While Thursday’s VDH report showed the City of Harrisonburg with 15 new cases of COVID-19 and another 20 new cases in Rockingham County, there was only one new hospitalization between them, and no new deaths related to the virus. Combined, the two localities have reported a total of 666 cases, 41 hospitalizations and 12 deaths.
Statewide, a significant increase in testing pushed the number of new cases up. On Wednesday, 5,536 people in Virginia were tested with 885 new cases being reported. Both figures are one-day highs for the state.
Virginia has now tested a total of 90,843 people and reported 15,846 cases of COVID-19 (about 17.4 percent of people tested were positive).
A breakdown of total cases by jurisdiction of the state’s “hot spots” is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 3,611 — Fairfax County (606-134)
- 1,645 — Prince William County (169-24)
- 967 — Arlington County (167-41)
- 876 — Henrico County (126-100)
- 754 — Alexandria (97-21)
- 746 — Loudoun County (90-15)
- 531 — Chesterfield County (43-20)
- 385 — Virginia Beach (77-14)
Virginia’s death toll related to COVID-19 has risen by 94 in the last three days (30 overnight), to a total of 552 as of Thursday morning.
According to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, there are 1,550 people currently in state hospitals that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. Among those, 372 are in intensive care and 208 are on ventilators.
The VHHA also reports that since the first case of COVID-19 was reported on March 7 in Prince William County, a total of 2,104 confirmed COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, have been released.
While the first case was reported March 7 in the state, VDH reports that COVID-19-related illnesses may have begun in the state on Feb. 16.
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