By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Jan. 12 — Tuesday’s report from the Virginia Department of Health was the worst in at least a week for Page County, as it included 22 new cases, one new hospitalization and the county’s 35th pandemic fatality.
Page County’s seven-day positivity rate remains at 20.6 percent, as it was on Monday, according to Daily Locality Metrics data provided on the VDH website. That rate, while fluctuating within a range of 3 percent, has remained near or above 20 percent for the past 22 days. It reached a high of 22.5 percent on Dec. 31.
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the spike in new cases of COVID-19 reported on Tuesday in Page County surfaced in the following areas:
• 11 cases — Luray area (22835);
• 6 cases — Shenandoah area (22849);
• 5 cases — Stanley area (22851).
With Page County now reporting its 35th death from COVID-19, the county now ranks 19th in Virginia for deaths per 100,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Shenandoah County — who reported two new pandemic deaths on Tuesday, its 77th and 78th — now ranks 11th in the state (see chart — https://www.vpap.org/covid-19/embed/deaths-fips-percapita/). Both localities ranked among the Top 10 on that chart earlier in the pandemic, but the coronavirus has caught up with low-density populations in the Southwest portions of the state like Galax, Smyth, Scott, Wise and Alleghany — all who now occupy the Top 10.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 164 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, marking a second-straight day of increases. Frederick County reported 75 new cases, while Shenandoah County had 26, Page reported 22, Warren had 12, Winchester saw 12 and Clarke had nine. The health district reported three new hospitalizations and three deaths on Tuesday.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 12,235 reported cases, 551 hospitalizations and 207 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 4,472 — Frederick County (153-35)
- 2,640 — Shenandoah County (150-78)
- 1,841 — City of Winchester (79-17)
- 1,575 — Warren County (70-36)
- 1,244 — Page County (77-35)
- 463 — Clarke County (22-6)
Harrisonburg reported 27 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, along with two hospitalizations and the city’s 48th death from the pandemic. Rockingham County saw 44 new cases surface and reported three hospitalizations and two deaths, the county’s 49th and 50th fatalities.
Statewide, 4,561 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday, following 4,530 cases on Monday. For five days prior to that, the state had reported more than 5,000 new cases each day.
Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate fell slightly on Tuesday and currently stands at 16.4 percent.
With 144 new hospitalizations reported on Tuesday, statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 reached yet another record-high of 3,185, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
Among those patients, 582 are being treated in intensive care units — another record-high for the pandemic. Among those, 349 are currently on ventilators — down three since yesterday.
Across Virginia, 35 percent of all ventilators are in use, and the state’s ICU bed occupancy is currently 81 percent.
As of Tuesday morning, 181,316 people in Virginia had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 773,825 doses (including Moderna and Pfizer vaccines) that have been distributed to facilities and agencies across the state. A total of 19,086 people in Virginia have been fully vaccinated.
Here’s a breakdown of vaccine doses administered across the Lord Fairfax Health District as of Tuesday’s report:
• 2,213 — City of Winchester;
• 1,845 — Frederick County;
• 1,065 — Shenandoah County;
• 758 — Warren County;
• 602 — Clarke County;
• 360 — Page County.
The state health department reported 84 deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday — the second-highest daily total of the entire pandemic. A total of 5,393 people in Virginia have died from COVID-19 since March 14 — 573 since Christmas.
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