By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Sept. 23 — The Lord Fairfax Health District has reported 17 deaths due to COVID-19 in September. Of those, 11 have been reported in the past nine days.
The Virginia Department of Health has reported two deaths since Monday in Frederick County, with one reported Tuesday and one Wednesday. Frederick also added one new hospitalization on Wednesday as well.
Shenandoah County has reported 10 deaths related to the pandemic this month, with seven in the last nine days. The county has reported a total of 58 deaths from COVID-19 — the highest in the health district, and double the next highest total of 29 reported by Page County.
Since Monday, the health district has reported 20 new cases of the coronavirus, with 12 of those surfacing in Frederick County.
Page County has seen five new cases surface over the past two days, with one reported Tuesday and four reported on Wednesday. According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, two of the recent cases were reported in the Luray area (22835), two were reported in the Shenandoah area (22849) and one was reported in the Rileyville area (22650).
As of Wednesday, Page County’s seven-day positivity rate had climbed slightly to 4.6 percent, with 11 positives cases of COVID-19 among 237 tests. Two days ago, that rate stood at 3 percent.
Page County has not reported a new hospitalization or death related to COVID-19 in the past seven days.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 3,046 reported cases, 265 hospitalizations and 110 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 860 — Frederick County (65-13)
- 801 — Shenandoah County (87-58)
- 490 — City of Winchester (35-4)
- 415 — Warren County (24-6)
- 389 — Page County (42-29)
- 93 — Clarke County (12-0)
The steady stream of new cases being reported in Harrisonburg is beginning to slow down, with only 17 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Wednesday. Since late August when classes resumed at James Madison University, the Friendly City has seen daily reports of new cases range from 25 to 75 for three straight weeks. Harrisonburg did add one hospitalization on Wednesday, the first in six days, but there have been no deaths reported in the city since Sept. 9.
Rockingham County has reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the past two days, as well as three hospitalizations. However, no new deaths related to the pandemic have been reported in Rockingham in the past week.
Statewide, 580 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Wednesday — the lowest daily total for new cases since July 6. It continues a downward trend since the daily mark hit 1,242 new cases on Sept. 18. New hospitalizations continue to fluctuate between 25 to 75 daily, with 43 reported Wednesday.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Wednesday that 916 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That’s the lowest level in the state since July 7.
Among those hospitalized, 215 are in intensive care, according to VHHA. That figure has remained fairly steady over the last week. Currently, there are 113 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators, up 11 over the past week.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 17,038 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
VDH reported 29 new deaths statewide on Wednesday, continuing an influx of higher death totals being reported by the state health department over the past nine days or so.
“VDH is working diligently to identify COVID-19 related deaths through vital record death certificate information. A backlog of death data is expected to be added from September 15 through September 25,” reads a statement by VDH on its COVID-19 dashboard.
Since March 14, VDH reports that a total of 3,089 people in Virginia have died from COVID-19.
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