By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Jan. 2 — In the past two days, the Virginia Department of Health has reported 54 new cases of COVID-19 in Page County — 25 on New Year’s Day and 29 on Saturday.
Since Christmas, Page County has seen 101 new cases of the virus surface, pushing the cumulative total over 1,000. That means the county has had about 10 percent of all cases reported during the last nine months surface in the last week — and that doesn’t count the county’s record-high of 76 new cases reported just 13 days ago on Dec. 21.
On Dec. 1, Page County had a total of 597 cases of the coronavirus (reported since March 31) — since Dec. 1, the county has reported 483 cases, or 44.7 percent of the current cumulative total of 1,080.
Page County’s seven-day positivity rate is now 21.5 percent, according to Daily Locality Metrics data provided on the VDH website. That’s a full point lower than the county’s record-high 22.5 percent reported on Thursday. On Nov. 16, that rate stood at 3.4 percent.
Currently, the county’s 14-day positivity rate of 21.6 percent is almost equal to the seven-day rate, which shows a sustained level of new cases flowing into the county.
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the new cases of COVID-19 reported in Page County over the past two days surfaced in the following areas:
• 31 cases — Luray area (22835)
• 13 cases — Stanley area (22851)
• 7 cases — Shenandoah area (22849)
• 1 case — Rileyville area (22650)
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the new cases of COVID-19 reported in Page County since Christmas surfaced in the following areas:
• 60 cases — Luray area (22835)
• 22 cases — Stanley area (22851)
• 16 cases — Shenandoah area (22849)
• 1 case — Rileyville area (22650)
Page County reported the only new hospitalizations in the health district on Saturday, with three — the first hospitalizations reported in the county in the past 10 days. Page has not reported a new death from the pandemic since Dec. 2.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported a record-high 240 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. That’s only the third time the district has seen more than 200 cases reported in a day since the previous record of 217 was set on Nov. 30. The district reported 192 cases on Tuesday and 190 on New Year’s Day.
Frederick County reported 75 new cases on Saturday, while Shenandoah County had 57 and Warren County reported 54. Over the last two days, Frederick has seen 139 new cases, with Shenandoah reported 112 and Warren had 81.
Since Christmas, the health district has reported a total of 1,219 new cases of coronavirus, along with 16 hospitalizations. The new wave of cases has pushed the district past the 10,000-case mark.
The district has seen 17 deaths related to the pandemic in just the past five days. Frederick County and the county seat of Winchester account for 11 of those deaths, while Shenandoah and Warren counties both had three and Clarke County reported two.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 10,759 reported cases, 529 hospitalizations and 190 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 3,871 — Frederick County (144-30)
- 2,316 — Shenandoah County (144-74)
- 1,685 — City of Winchester (76-14)
- 1,410 — Warren County (69-34)
- 1,080 — Page County (75-33)
- 397 — Clarke County (21-5)
On Saturday, Harrisonburg reported 17 new cases of COVID-19, while Rockingham County had 43. Neither reported a new hospitalization or death.
Statewide, 3,989 new cases of the virus were reported on Saturday, along with 74 new hospitalizations. The case count shows a decline from two consecutive days with more than 5,000 cases, including the state record of 5,239 cases reported on New Year’s Eve.
Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate continues to climb and currently stands at 14.8 percent, according to the VDH. That represents an increase of 3.3 percent since Christmas. Just after Thanksgiving, that rate stood at 7.3 percent.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported on Saturday that a total of 2,710 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results — that represents a decrease of 34 over the last two days, but still sits at one of the highest levels of the pandemic. During the height of the spring surge, statewide hospitalizations only reached 1,524 on May 20.
Among those hospitalized statewide, 557 are currently in intensive care being treated for COVID-19 — same as yesterday, but up 39 since Christmas. There are 335 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators — a new record-high for the pandemic in Virginia. Currently, 80 percent of the ICU beds in the state are occupied.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 31,182 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
As of Saturday morning, 81,770 people in Virginia had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 388,100 doses that have been distributed to facilities and agencies across the state.
The state health department has reported 297 deaths related to the pandemic since Christmas. Virginia surpassed the 5,000-death mark on New Year’s Eve, after surpassing 4,000 the day before Thanksgiving. A total of 5,117 people in Virginia have died from COVID-19 since March 14.
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