By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Nov. 20 — The Virginia Department of Health has reported 22 cases of COVID-19 in Page County in the last three days. Thursday’s nine new cases marks the highest one-day total since May 27.
According to ZIP code date provided by VDH, the Shenandoah area (22849) has seen 12 cases over the past week, compared to 10 cases in the Luray area (22835). The Stanley area (22851) has only reported four cases in the past seven days.
Page has also seen two new hospitalizations since Wednesday, with one reported each of the last two days. However, the county has not reported a COVID-19 death since Oct. 28.
Currently, Page County’s seven-day positivity rate is 4 percent.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 87 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That represents a slight decline in new cases after the district reported more than 100 for three consecutive days, including a record-high of 174 new cases reported on Wednesday. Prior to Tuesday, the health district had not seen more than 100 cases of the virus reported in a single day since the pandemic began. This week, it has happened three times.
Frederick County continues to be the “hot spot” in the region, with 37 more cases of COVID-19 reported on Friday. The county hit a record-high of 88 on Wednesday, followed by 58 on Thursday. In the past eight days, Frederick County has reported a total of 349 cases of the novel coronavirus.
Shenandoah County reported 17 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That’s the first time the county has been below 20 since Monday. Shenandoah has reported a total of 89 cases of the virus over the past four days.
The City of Winchester saw 15 new cases surface in Friday’s report, while Warren County had seven and Clarke reported five.
The health district has reported six new hospitalizations due to COVID-19 since Wednesday, with two each in Page and Warren counties and Winchester.
Clarke County was the only locality within the health district to report a death in the last two days. The county reported its third pandemic fatality on Friday.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 5,329 reported cases, 407 hospitalizations and 141 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 1,741 — Frederick County (111-17)
- 1,268 — Shenandoah County (112-62)
- 847 — City of Winchester (50-4)
- 746 — Warren County (55-24)
- 549 — Page County (60-31)
- 178 — Clarke County (19-3)
After a couple of days with low case counts, the City of Harrisonburg reported 23 new cases on Friday, while Rockingham County added another 38 cases. Both localities had similar counts on Tuesday, but had not seen numbers like that since early in November. Rockingham reported one hospitalization on Thursday.
Statewide, 2,544 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday — the second-highest total in Virginia since the pandemic first hit the state in mid-February. The record-high was set four days earlier, when the state reported 2,677 new cases on Monday.
Currently, Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate stands at 7 percent.
New hospitalizations have been hovering around the 100 mark for the past three days — the highest level since July 16.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported on Friday that 1,510 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That figure hit 1,569 on Thursday — the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic began. The state has not seen total hospitalizations surpass 1,500 since April and May.
Among those hospitalized statewide, 318 are currently in intensive care being treated for COVID-19, according to VHHA — the highest level since June 6, and up 15 from yesterday. Currently, there are 133 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators — the most since Sept. 10.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 22,946 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
The state health department reported 16 new deaths related to the pandemic on Friday. A total of 3,912 people in Virginia have died from COVID-19 since March 14.
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