By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Aug. 10 — Yesterday, Virginia only reported four deaths related to the current pandemic, but one was in Page County.
On Sunday, the Virginia Department of Health reported the 25th death in Page County due to COVID-19 since the first case was reported in the county on March 31.
Shenandoah County was the only other jurisdiction within the Lord Fairfax Health District to report a coronavirus fatality in the past week, with one reported Thursday and another on Saturday.
VDH only reported one new case of COVID-19 in Page County on Monday — the only new case reported in the health district. However, Page has picked up 13 new cases over the last week, while the health district has seen 76.
With 151 tests administered for COVID-19 in Page County over the past week and 13 cases reported (actually 15 new cases were reported, but two were found not to be COVID-19), that leaves the county with an 8.6-percent positivity rate for the seven-day period.
Shenandoah County saw a spike of 17 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Sunday, which followed 10 reported cases on Saturday. The county reported a total of 36 new cases for the week.
Outside of Shenandoah County’s spike, most of the health district has only seen a trickle of new cases over the past seven days. Frederick County reported 11 new cases, Warren County and Winchester both had seven, while Clarke saw two.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 2,569 reported cases, 222 hospitalizations and 88 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 717 — Shenandoah County (74-44)
- 681 — Frederick County (51-9)
- 399 — City of Winchester (31-4)
- 355 — Warren County (22-6)
- 346 — Page County (37-25)
- 71 — Clarke County (7-0)
The City of Harrisonburg has reported 24 cases over the past week, but only four over the weekend. On Friday, both Harrisonburg and Rockingham County reported two hospitalizations and one death. Both jurisdictions also reported one additional death in the last seven days; Harrisonburg on Wednesday, and Rockingham on Thursday.
Statewide, 2,867 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported since Virginia hit its new one-day peak of 2,015 cases reported Friday. VDH blames Friday’s peak on a backlog of cases that were reported at one time due to a problem in the reporting system.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Monday that 1,251 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That figure is down 121 since Friday.
Among those hospitalized, 279 are in intensive care, according to VHHA — down five since Friday. Currently, there are 159 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators, which represents no change since Friday.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 12,961 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
Virginia’s pandemic death toll slowed over the past three days, remaining in the lower single digits after tallying 99 fatalities Tuesday through Friday. A total of 2,327 people in Virginia have died from COVID-19 since the virus first hit the Commonwealth in mid-February.
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Is there any explanation of the high percentage of deaths in Page County compared with the surrounding counties? It has the second lowest number of cases and the highest number of deaths.