PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Department of Health is reporting 596 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and 38 new deaths linked to the disease caused by the coronavirus.
542 of those new cases were confirmed by testing, with 54 more diagnosed by doctors but not confirmed via testing. Those cases are considered “probable” cases by health officials. On Thursday (April 23) there were 732 new cases reported, 675 confirmed via testing and 57 probable cases.
The commonwealth’s total number of cases is now at 11,594 overall as of Friday.
Virginia’s daily reported COVID-19 cases showed a downward trend from April 17 to April 20, but rose back up, jumping to the highest per day increase in testing confirmed cases (675) on April 23.
More than 1,000 of those cases are at long-term facilities in the commonwealth, with 80 deaths at those facilities — mostly at one in Henrico County.
4,497 more people statewide have been tested, per VDH data, showing overall testing is ramping up compared to earlier averages of around 2,000 new tests reported each day in Virginia. Health officials say reported numbers under represent the actual number of COVID-19 cases in the commonwealth due to lack of testing.
Current COVID-19 hospitalizations are now up to 1,399 as of Friday, Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association data shows, with 912 patients confirmed positive for COVID-19 and 487 with results pending.
Hospitalizations are up by 91 patients since this time last Friday (April 17). 1,672 patients have been discharged from the hospital.
Earlier this week the health department started releasing information on cases, hospitalizations and deaths by city and county, and not just larger health districts.
Here’s the current breakdown for the Tidewater area:
Virginia Beach
331 cases, 65 hospitalized, 10 deaths (66 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Norfolk
141 cases, 31 hospitalized, 3 deaths (33 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Portsmouth
100 cases, 30 hospitalized, 4 deaths (37 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Chesapeake
197 cases, 43 hospitalized, 5 deaths (50 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Hampton
99 cases, 26 hospitalized, 1 deaths (21 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Newport News
107 cases, 32 hospitalized, 6 deaths (7 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Suffolk
138 cases, 30 hospitalized, 4 deaths (58 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Southampton County
75 cases, 3 hospitalized, 1 deaths (68 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Isle of Wight County
91 cases, 8 hospitalized, 1 deaths (22 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Accomack County
100 cases, 17 hospitalized, 3 deaths (72 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Northampton
15 cases, 1 hospitalized, 0 deaths (10 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
York County
43 cases, 6 hospitalized, 1 deaths (5 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
James City County
150 cases, 51 hospitalized, 12 deaths (12 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Gloucester County
21 cases, 4 hospitalized, 1 deaths (1 new case compared to last Friday, April 17)
Mathews County
3 cases, 1 hospitalized, 0 deaths (No new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Williamsburg
14 cases, 5 hospitalized, 1 deaths (5 new cases compared to last Friday, April 17)
Meanwhile as of Friday morning, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States passed 869,000, with more than 49,000 deaths, per Johns Hopkins University data. More than 4.6 million tests have been done in the U.S. with 80,000-plus recoveries recorded.