By Randy Arrington
LURAY, July 20 — Despite an increasing number of new cases of COVID-19 being reported statewide over the last 10 days, Page County is holding its own — and in some areas, showing improvement.
Over the weekend, 87 tests for COVID-19 were administered in the county with only five cases coming up positive for the coronavirus, according to the Virginia Department of Health. That’s a positivity rate of 5.7 percent over the past three days.
One week ago, both the state and the Lord Fairfax Health District reported positivity rates of 5.9 percent. They have not changed greatly in the last seven days, but the real concern is in the eastern portion of the state — the only area above a 10-percent positivity rate, with an increasing number of new cases in the Hampton Roads area.
Page County saw only one new case of COVID-19 reported on Monday, with two reported both Saturday and Sunday. Page hit a recent high of seven cases reported in a single day last Wednesday, July 15. The last time Page hit seven cases in a single day was June 7. Since then, the county has not reported more than five cases in one day.
By comparison, the county hit a high of 52 new cases of the coronavirus reported on April 25. The top five highest reporting days for Page have been:
- 52 new cases — April 25
- 14 — May 23
- 13 — May 16
- 11 — May 13
- 9 — April 30, May 7, May 25, May 27
Page County has not reported a new hospitalization related to the pandemic in the last four days, and the county has not reported a COVID-19 death since June 2.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported 66 new cases of the coronavirus over weekend, with half of them surfacing in Frederick County (22) and its county seat of Winchester (11). Shenandoah County reported 13 new cases over the last three days, while Warren County saw 12 new cases. After going six days with no new cases reported, Clarke County had three reported Monday morning.
Among those 66 new cases, the health district only reported two hospitalizations — Frederick and Warren counties, both reported on Monday. The district has not reported a COVID-19 death in four days.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 2,339 reported cases of COVID-19 is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 650 — Shenandoah County (71-38)
- 597 — Frederick County (45-7)
- 377 — City of Winchester (27-4)
- 334 — Warren County (22-8)
- 317 — Page County (32-23)
- 64 — Clarke County (7-0)
Harrisonburg reported eight new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, but the city has not had a new hospitalization or death in the past four days. Rockingham County has reported 15 new cases in three days, with two hospitalizations reported Monday and one death reported Saturday.
Statewide, 945 new cases of the coronavirus were reported on Monday. That followed 1,057 new cases on Sunday, and 940 cases on Saturday. Virginia has clearly shown a rise in new cases over the past 10 days, but hospitalizations have remained somewhat stable.
New hospitalizations actually trended down over the weekend:
- 115 — Thursday, July 16
- 67 — Friday, July 17
- 60 — Saturday, July 18
- 18 — Sunday, July 19
However, with 36 new hospitalizations reported Monday, the numbers continue to fluctuate, keeping the total number of hospitalizations somewhat steady over the last eight days.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Monday that 1,158 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That figure is down 28 since yesterday, after increasing by 20 on Sunday — and it remains above 1,000 for the 11th consecutive day. Prior to the recent trend, it was June 12 the last time the number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 exceeded 1,000 in Virginia.
Among those hospitalized, 265 are in intensive care, according to VHHA — up 18 since Friday. Currently, there are 125 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators — up seven since Friday.
Since the pandemic began, VHHA also reports that 10,107 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
VDH reported 18 new deaths related to the pandemic over the weekend. Of those, 12 were reported on Saturday, with only two on Sunday and four Monday. Virginia’s pandemic death toll now stands at 2,031 since March 14.
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