COVID-19 is making a slight comeback in the area and throughout the commonwealth, health officials say.
“We are seeing increases in cases in Northern Virginia and throughout the state,” Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department, says in an email.
It’s not exactly time to push the panic button, however: Goodfriend emphasized that in Northern Virginia, “so far we are not seeing corresponding increases in hospitalizations and deaths.”
Hospitalizations in Loudoun, Fairfax and Arlington counties for the week ending July 22 (the latest numbers available) were up 22.7 percent, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — although it should be noted that that only brings the number of hospitalizations up to 27.
The percentage of COVID-19 tests in Virginia that came back positive in the week ending July 29 is up 3.3 percent over the previous week, the CDC said, while hospitalizations are up 0.8 percent for the week ending July 22 over the previous week. Of the 824 tests reported, 6.4 percent came back positive.
Wastewater surveillance, thought to be a good indicator of COVID-19 prevalence, shows no major increases in Northern Virginia.
DC saw 50 new hospital admissions and had an increase of 6.4 percent, according to the CDC. The number of cases for both NoVA and DC are considered low.
Nationwide, COVID-19 hospital admissions are up 12.1 percent over the previous week, with 8,035 admissions.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Health this week announced changes to its COVID-19 dashboards, with the aim of better reflecting trends in the commonwealth and to align with the CDC’s reporting standards. Among the changes, the new numbers for hospital admissions will denote the rate of admissions per 100,000 residents, while the data on hospital beds being used for COVID-19 patients will change from number to a percentage.
You can see all the changes on the VDH website.
Feature image, Sharne T/peopleimages.com/stock.adobe.com
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