By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Nov. 6 — Frederick County reported new fatalities due to COVID-19 on Thursday and Friday, marking the county’s 14th and 15th deaths from the virus since the pandemic began.
The two deaths represent the first fatalities from the coronavirus reported within the Lord Fairfax Health District since Page County reported its 31st pandemic death on Oct. 28.
The Virginia Department of Health also reported 50 new cases of COVID-19 within the health district on Friday. Prior to Oct. 28, the district had only seen the daily case count reach 50 on five occasions, with four of those in May and three of those in the last week of the month around Memorial Day.
Over the last 10 days since Oct. 28, the health district has seen the daily case count reach 50 three times. The bulk of those new cases are being seen in Frederick and Shenandoah counties, as well we the City of Winchester.
Frederick County saw a spike of 22 new cases reported on Thursday alone and has reported 74 new cases in the last five days. Shenandoah County saw a spike of 17 new cases reported on Friday, with a total of 68 new cases surfacing since Monday. Winchester reported 12 cases on Friday, with 37 since Monday.
Warren County has reported 28 new cases of the coronavirus since Monday, with four on Friday and a high point of six on Monday and Thursday. Page County saw a small spike of six new cases of COVID-19 reported on Tuesday, but only reported a total of nine new cases this week. Clarke County has reported seven new cases in five days.
Across the Lord Fairfax Health District, the COVID-19 case count has increased by 37 percent, or 1,160 cases, since Oct. 1. At that time, the health district had reported 3,154 cases of the virus. As of Friday, there have been 4,314 cases of COVID-19 reported among the six jurisdictions.
Hospitalizations have increased across the health district by 31 percent (84) since Oct. 1 — growing from 274 then, to 358 as of Friday. Deaths across the district have climbed at a slower rate, with 21 reported since Oct. 1 for an increase of 19 percent (from 113 to 134).
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 4,314 reported cases, 358 hospitalizations and 134 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 1,289 — Frederick County (92-15)
- 1,067 — Shenandoah County (104-61)
- 680 — City of Winchester (46-4)
- 649 — Warren County (48-22)
- 497 — Page County (53-31)
- 132 — Clarke County (15-1)
Within Page County, a majority of the new cases reported this week have surfaced in the Luray area, according to ZIP code data provided by the state health department. School Metrics on the VDH site show a 14-day positivity rate in Page County of 4.7 percent, which continues a declining trend.
The City of Harrisonburg saw 22 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Friday, while Rockingham County had 17. As new cases continue to be reported in both localities, both jurisdictions combined have only seen one new hospitalization over the past week.
Statewide, 1,568 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday. That marks a third day of increases in the daily total in Virginia, as new cases continue to spike in the Southside and Southwest regions.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Friday that 1,057 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That represents an increase of 26 since Monday.
Among those hospitalized, 216 are currently in intensive care being treated for COVID-19 statewide, according to VHHA. That figure climbed during the week to a peak of 240 on Thursday, but dropped back close to Monday’s level in this morning’s report. Currently, there are 96 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators — that figure also rose to a high of 104 by Thursday, but had dropped back to almost the same level as Monday by the end of the week.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 21,366 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
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