By Randy Arrington
LURAY, April 26 — As Page County eased out of the “dark winter” over the last two months, most weeks saw less than 15 new cases of COVID-19 reported. The county’s positivity rate dropped as low as 1.8 percent just over three weeks ago. However, Page has now seen its case count consistently grow over the past three weeks, and on Monday the positivity rate reached 10 percent for the first time since Feb. 28.
The Virginia Department of Health reported 33 new cases of the coronavirus in Page County over the past week. The count was 29 cases last week, 14 the week before, and 12 prior to that. Last week’s high point came on Saturday, with eight reported cases of the virus. Since the first case was reported on March 31, 2020, Page County has seen nearly 2,000 cases of COVID-19.
The county reported two new hospitalizations over the past week, but Page has not added to its pandemic death toll of 57 since March 17. One week ago, Page County’s positivity rate stood at 4.2 percent. It has climbed steadily over the past week and nearly doubled in just the last five days. According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the past week’s new cases surfaced in the following areas:
• 16 cases — Luray area (22835);
• 10 cases — Stanley area (22851);
• 8 cases — Shenandoah area (22849);
• 1 case — Rileyville area (22650).
A total of 1,089 COVID-19 vaccinations were administered in Page County over the past week, with the number of residents receiving at least one dose growing by 321 and the number of fully vaccinated residents increasing 787. As of Monday’s report by VDH, a cumulative total of 11,518 vaccinations have been given locally, with 7,372 people with at least one dose (about 30.7 percent of the population) and 5,709 have been fully vaccinated (about 23.8 percent).
The Lord Fairfax Health District has been reporting fewer new cases of COVID-19, with only 29 on Monday and 39 on Sunday. However, there were 25 new hospitalizations reported across the district this past week and six virus-related deaths (four in Frederick County and one each in Shenandoah County and the City of Winchester).
The commonwealth’s seven-day positivity rate has remained fairly steady in April, but it’s been falling slowly — but consistently — over the past five days and now stands at 5.4 percent. A week ago the rate was 6.1 percent, where it had been sitting for the previous 10 days.
Virginia’s new case count fell below 1,000 on both Sunday (884) and Monday (719) — marking the first two consecutive days that the commonwealth had reported less than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 since mid-October. The state only reported 28 new hospitalizations related to the pandemic on Monday, and total statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are at the lowest point in a month. Virginia reported 111 deaths related to the virus over the last week and a total of 10,706 in the past 13 months.
Across the state, nearly 6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, with more than 3.6 million receiving at least one dose (42.9 percent of the statewide population) and almost 2.5 million fully vaccinated (28.7 percent). Currently, Virginia is averaging 74,315 doses of the vaccine being administered each day — a slight decline from last Monday’s 77,983.
Vaccines are available by pre-registration and appointment. To pre-register, or to update your pre-registration record, visit www.vaccinate.virginia.gov or call 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). English- and Spanish-speaking operators are available. Translation services also are available, in more than 100 languages. For TTY, dial 7-1-1.
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