By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Aug. 7 — In the midst of what many thought would be the only peak in this pandemic, Virginia reached a height of 1,615 new cases of COVID-19 reported on May 26. The previous day, 1,483 new cases had been reported on Memorial Day.
This morning, the Virginia Department of Health reported 2,015 new cases in the Commonwealth. Nearly six months into the pandemic, Virginia has just reported its highest one-day total of new cases since the novel coronavirus hit the state in mid-February.
By Monday, Virginia could surpass 100,000 total cases since February, with 2,317 deaths related to COVID-19 reported as of Friday. A total of 99 deaths were reported this week in the state, with 18 reported today.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Friday that 1,372 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That figure is up 167 since Monday.
Among those hospitalized, 284 are in intensive care, according to VHHA — up 13 since Monday. Currently, there are 159 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators, up eight since Monday.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 12,725 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
Across the region, Rockingham County has seen two new deaths in the last two days, with one reported Thursday and one Friday. The county also saw four hospitalizations during that time and has reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 in the last five days. Harrisonburg has seen 27 new cases this week, with two new hospitalizations (both Friday) and one new death also reported on Friday.
The Lord Fairfax Health District reported a total of 13 new cases this morning with 46 reported in the last five days. Frederick County gained the most new cases this week with 17, while Shenandoah County had 10. Four hospitalizations were reported in the district over the last five days, with no single jurisdiction having more than one.
The only death this week within the health district was reported on Thursday in Shenandoah County.
Page County saw seven new cases of COVID-19 reported this week, but two cases were taken off the total on Thursday. According to ZIP code data, the new cases were spread throughout the county. The five new cases the county netted this week brought Page’s total up to 337 cases of the coronavirus reported since March 31.
In the past five days, there have been 118 tests administered for COVID-19 in Page County with five total cases reported. That results in a 4.2-percent positivity rate for the county since Sunday.
Page County did have one new hospitalization reported on Wednesday — the first in the county in 11 days. No new deaths have been reported in Page since July 23.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 2,530 reported cases, 220 hospitalizations and 86 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 690 — Shenandoah County (72-43)
- 680 — Frederick County (51-9)
- 399 — City of Winchester (31-4)
- 354 — Warren County (22-6)
- 337 — Page County (37-24)
- 70 — Clarke County (7-0)
UPDATE:
The state health department posted the following after releasing COVID-19 data on Friday morning:
“Today, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced that the COVID-19 data numbers that will be posted on Friday, August 7 will contain a significant increase due to a data backlog from earlier in the week.
Today’s data will indicate 2,015 new cases. This figure includes information that should have been reported on Wednesday and Thursday of this week as well as the regular numbers for Friday.
Late Thursday, VDH’s Office of Information Management, which helps manage VDH’s COVID-19 databases, identified and rectified the technical issue, which was a system performance configuration.”
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