By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Jan. 18 — The Virginia Department of Health has reported 88 new cases of COVID-19 in Page County since Friday, with 35 on Saturday, 27 on Sunday and 26 reported on Monday. Page County has seen more cases of the coronavirus surface in the last three days than it did during any single month of the pandemic from June to October.
While April produced 100 cases of the virus in the county and May saw 120 cases surface, Page did not surpass 100 cases within a 30-day period again until November, when 105 cases were reported. Since then, Page County has reported 429 new cases of COVID-19 during December, and another 351 cases just over halfway through January.
Page County’s 14-day positivity rate of 19.4 percent remains the highest within the Lord Fairfax Health District, as it has for most of the last month, according to CDC School Metrics provided on the VDH website. Here’s a breakdown of the 14-day positivity rates across the health district as of Monday:
• 19.4% — Page County;
• 18.2% — City of Winchester;
• 16.1% — Clarke County;
• 12.7% — Frederick and Shenandoah counties;
• 8.7% — Warren County.
A comparison of seven-day positivity rates shows the same general breakdown, with the exception of Clarke County matching Page County for the top spot at 19.1 percent, according to Daily Locality Metrics data provided on the VDH website.
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the new cases of COVID-19 reported over the last three days in Page County surfaced in the following areas (ZIP code data totals do not always match the county’s daily reports – see details on the VDH ZIP code page link above):
• 36 cases — Luray area (22835);
• 29 cases — Stanley area (22851);
• 17 cases — Shenandoah area (22849);
• 2 cases — Rilleyville area (22650).
Page County has reported three hospitalizations in the last three days, but no deaths related to the pandemic have been reported since Saturday when the county saw its 36th fatality from COVID-19.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 219 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday — the third consecutive day of more than 200 cases after surpassing that mark only three times previously during the pandemic. The district’s three-day total of 638 cases breaks down as follows: 202 cases in Frederick County, 144 in Shenandoah County, 89 in Winchester, 88 in Page County, 77 in Warren County and 38 in Clarke County.
The health district has reported 13 new hospitalizations in the last three days, with four in Shenandoah County, three in Page, two each in Frederick and Warren, and one each in Clarke and Winchester. The district also saw six new fatalities to the pandemic. Shenandoah County reported three deaths due to COVID-19, with one each in Page, Frederick and Winchester.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 13,371 reported cases, 570 hospitalizations and 219 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 4,863 — Frederick County (157-38)
- 2,900 — Shenandoah County (154-83)
- 1,992 — City of Winchester (82-19)
- 1,710 — Warren County (73-36)
- 1,377 — Page County (81-36)
- 529 — Clarke County (23-7)
On Monday, Harrisonburg reported 22 new cases of COVID-19, after reporting 45 on Sunday. The city also saw one hospitalization and one death over the last two days. Rockingham County reported 70 new cases on Monday and 78 Sunday, along with two hospitalizations over the two days.
The Virginia Department of Health reported 7,245 new cases of COVID-19 across the state on Monday. That would have marked another record-high, except for the 9,914 cases reported on Sunday.
The last three days have produced the highest daily case counts of the entire pandemic for Virginia, with a combined 72-hour total of 23,916 new cases of COVID-19. That’s more cases of the coronavirus reported in three days than Virginia saw during the entire month of either June or September.
Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate stands at 14 percent. Despite three consecutive days of record-highs, the state’s positivity rate has been declining for eight straight days.
Statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 are at 3,151, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. After dropping for two days, that figure is almost back to the same level it was on Friday.
Among those patients, 584 are being treated in intensive care units — one shy of the record-high set five days ago Among those, 354 are currently on ventilators — the same amount as Saturday, and only a dozen less than the record high set last Thursday.
As of Monday morning, 290,558 people in Virginia had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 943,400 doses (including Moderna and Pfizer vaccines) that have been distributed to facilities and agencies across the state. A total of 34,407 people in Virginia have been fully vaccinated.
Here’s a breakdown of vaccine doses administered and those who have been fully vaccinated (two doses) across the Lord Fairfax Health District as of Monday’s report:
• 4,846 doses administered, 796 fully vaccinated — City of Winchester;
• 4,001 doses administered, 666 fully vaccinated — Frederick County;
• 2,626 doses administered, 252 fully vaccinated — Shenandoah County;
• 1,708 doses administered, 198 fully vaccinated — Warren County;
• 1,366 doses administered, 85 fully vaccinated — Clarke County;
• 924 doses administered, 93 fully vaccinated — Page County.
The state health department reported 10 new deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, after reporting 23 on Sunday. A total of 5,739 people statewide have died from COVID-19 since March 14 — 919 since Christmas.
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