PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia’s current level of COVID-19 hospitalizations hit 3,000 patients for the first time on Thursday, with the commonwealth adding 5,379 new cases and 49 new deaths.
The new record numbers come just about two weeks after Christmas, and levels are expected to increase into February.
Gov. Ralph Northam didn’t announce any new restrictions to combat the rising numbers statewide in his address Wednesday, but did set a goal of vaccinating 25,000 people a day, with a longer term goal of 50,000.
Virginia’s first COVID-19 doses were given out on Dec. 15 in Norfolk, and since then the Virginia Department of Health is reporting 135,863 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Virginia has received a total 481,550 COVID-19 vaccine doses. At this point, just under 4,000 people in Virginia are fully vaccinated.
Northam has called on hospitals, who he says are holding back vaccines, to “empty your freezers.” He also suggested that the federal government use the Defense Production Act to increase rollout speed.
Northam also announced a head of Virginia’s vaccine rollout, and said Virginia schools could go year-round to make up for lost in-person instruction. Teachers are in the next phase of vaccinations, 1B, and Northam says getting teachers vaccinated is key to reopen schools.
Teachers should be able to start getting vaccines starting around February, with other frontline essential workers getting vaccines around that time. It could take “well into the spring” to get 1C workers vaccinated, with the general public closer to the summer.
Statewide numbers
- New cases: (+5,379, 382,679 total), trending up, at record levels
- Case incidence rate: 55.3 per 100K people, trending up, at record levels
- New deaths (+49, 5,275 total), trending up, 35 per day on average
- Current hospitalizations (+75, 3,000 total), trending up overall, at record levels
- Testing (16.8% 7-day average of positive tests), trending up overall, averaging around 25K tests (down recently around holiday)
- Vaccines administered: (116,247 total), 2,204 people fully vaccinated (not updated yet for Thursday, Virginia’s first full vaccinations reported on Wednesday)
- Vaccines distributed: (481,550 total), data not updated yet for Thursday, no new vaccines added Wednesday
Deaths are trending up and nearing a new average high. Virginia’s previous record was 42 deaths per day in September.
Hospitalizations nationwide are also at a record high, and more than 2,600 deaths are being reported each day on average.
Local metrics
It was another day of high case number for the region, with more than 400 new cases in Virginia Beach, the largest city in Virginia.
- Accomack: 1,855 cases, 137 hospitalized, 30 deaths (+31 cases, +1 death)
- Chesapeake: 10,031 cases, 628 hospitalized, 106 deaths (+98 cases, +5 hospitalizations, +2 deaths)
- Franklin: 693 cases, 37 hospitalized, 18 deaths (+5 cases)
- Gloucester: 976 cases, 35 hospitalized, 8 deaths (+23 cases, +1 death)
- Hampton: 4,946 cases, 203 hospitalized, 51 deaths (+81 cases, +3 hospitalizations, +1 death)
- Isle of Wight: 1,642 cases, 80 hospitalized, 29 deaths (+17 cases)
- James City County: 2,197 cases, 100 hospitalized, 31 deaths (+54 cases)
- Mathews: 343 cases, 15 hospitalized, 4 deaths (+5 cases)
- Newport News: 6,630 cases, 208 hospitalized, 72 deaths (+89 cases, +3 hospitalizations)
- Norfolk: 9,703 cases, 583 hospitalized, 113 deaths (+152 cases, +5 hospitalization, +1 death)
- Northampton: 484 cases, 57 hospitalized, 31 deaths (+18 cases)
- Poquoson: 381 cases, 15 hospitalized, 6 deaths (+8 cases)
- Portsmouth: 4,995 cases, 453 hospitalized, 87 deaths (+100 cases, +8 hospitalization, +1 death)
- Southampton: 1,451 cases, 35 hospitalized, 42 deaths (+79 cases)
- Suffolk: 4,335 cases, 248 hospitalized, 93 deaths (+53 cases, +2 deaths)
- Virginia Beach: 18,811 cases, 800 hospitalized, 162 deaths (+419 cases, +33 hospitalizations, + 3 deaths)
- Williamsburg: 383 cases, 22 hospitalized, 8 deaths (+3 cases)
- York: 1,701 cases, 36 hospitalized, 13 deaths (+40 cases)
Key metrics
- 1,275 new cases, record levels and trending up
- 10 new deaths, trending up
- +15 current hospitalizations (676 total), record levels, trending up
- Test positivity: 20%, trending up
Test positivity
- Chesapeake — 22.3% — record and trending up
- Eastern Shore — 24% — trending up
- Hampton — 24.2% — record and trending up
- Norfolk — 15.4% — trending up
- Peninsula — 20.4% — record and trending up overall
- Portsmouth — 19.8% — trending up overall
- Virginia Beach — 19.7% — record and trending up overall
- Western Tidewater —16% — trending up overall
For more information from the Virginia Department of Health, click here.