By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Sept. 29 — While Frederick County continues to report the highest number of new cases, Warren County showed the highest increase in COVID-19 data over the past week within the Lord Fairfax Health District.
The Virginia Department of Health has reported 36 new cases of the coronavirus in Frederick County in the last seven days, with another 15 surfacing in the county seat of Winchester. That represents 55.4 percent of the health district’s new cases for the past week.
Frederick County also leads the health district in total cases of COVID-19, now approaching 900. The county has reported two hospitalizations in the past week, and one death on Sept. 23. Winchester added one hospitalization on Saturday.
Warren County had only seen six new cases of COVID-19 in nine days before a recent spike over the weekend resulted in 20 new cases in the past four days. Warren reported one new death related to the pandemic on Friday and two new hospitalizations over the weekend.
A cumulative breakdown by jurisdiction of the health district’s 3,132 reported cases, 271 hospitalizations and 111 deaths is as follows (hospitalizations – deaths):
- 895 — Frederick County (66-13)
- 806 — Shenandoah County (88-58)
- 505 — City of Winchester (36-4)
- 435 — Warren County (26-7)
- 398 — Page County (43-29)
- 95 — Clarke County (12-0)
Despite having the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the health district — and leading in hospitalizations and deaths — Shenandoah County only reported six new cases of the coronavirus in the past week, with one new hospitalization reported on Tuesday morning.
Page County has had 13 positive cases in the past week among 234 tests administered for COVID-19. That gives Page County a seven-day positivity rate of 5.5 percent. That is slightly up. Here’s a comparison of seven-day positivity rates for Page during September:
- 5.5% — Sept. 29 — 13 cases among 234 tests;
- 4.6% — Sept. 23 — 11 cases among 237 tests;
- 6.2% — Sept. 15 — 10 cases among 161 tests;
- 4.9% — Sept. 8 — 5 cases among 101 tests.
According to ZIP code data provided by VDH, the 13 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Page County over the past week have surfaced in the following areas:
- 6 cases — 22849 (Shenandoah area);
- 4 cases— 22851 (Stanley area);
- 3 cases— 22835 (Luray area).
However, the Luray area (22835) still has the highest count, with 193 of Page County’s 398 total reported cases, or 48.5 percent. Here’s a breakdown of the cumulative totals for cases and testing in each ZIP code area:
- 22835 (Luray area) — 193 positive cases, among 1,723 tests;
- 22851 (Stanley area) — 106 cases, among 771 tests;
- 22849 (Shenandoah area) — 91 cases, among 836 tests;
- 22650 (Rileyville area) — 7 cases, among 82 tests.
In addition to its 13 new cases of COVID-19, Page County reported one new hospitalization on Tuesday morning — the first in 15 days. No deaths related to the pandemic have been reported in Page since Sept. 16.
The City of Harrisonburg continues to see new cases of COVID-19 surface, with 16 reported on Tuesday and 128 reported over the past week. However, the city has only reported three new hospitalizations in the last seven days, with one on Tuesday. No COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the city since Sept. 9.
Rockingham County reported eight new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday and 62 in the past week. Rockingham reported a new COVID-19 death on Saturday, and three hospitalizations in seven days.
Statewide, 923 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday — slightly up from the previous two days, but in line with daily new cases reported last week. New hospitalizations continue to average around 50 per day.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reported Tuesday that 958 people are currently hospitalized that have either been confirmed to have COVID-19 or are awaiting test results. That figure halted a four-day decline, but it still remains below 1,000 where total hospitalizations in the state have been since Sept. 17. Prior to that date, Virginia’s hospitalization count due to COVID-19 had not fallen below 1,000 since July 9.
Among those hospitalized, 202 are in intensive care, according to VHHA. That figure represents an increase of nine over the previous day, but ICU patients due to COVID-19 are generally declining hitting a high of 300 on Aug. 18. Currently, there are 113 COVID-19 patients statewide on ventilators, the same total as one week ago.
Since the pandemic hit Virginia, VHHA reports that 17,576 people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 and were hospitalized, have been discharged.
However, VDH reported 15 more deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday. The state’s pandemic death toll has slowed after peaking in mid-September due to a data backlog, according to the state health department.
Since March 14, Virginia has seen a total of 3,187 people die from COVID-19.
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