PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia passed 800 COVID-19 deaths overall after reporting 43 new deaths on Friday, the state’s second deadliest day of the pandemic to date.
The Virginia Department of Health also reported 772 new COVID-19 cases with 6,662 new tests.
3 of Friday’s reported deaths came in Tidewater: 2 in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore and 1 in York County.
Friday’s increase of 772 new cases is higher than increases in the last three days, but daily reported cases have mostly been trending downward in the last week.
As testing continues to increase, the new number of positive tests to total tests is also trending downward — a key metric for gauging Virginia’s progress, Gov. Ralph Northam said. Virginia averaging between 5,000-6,000 tests per day on average, data shows.
Current hospitalizations rose slightly on Friday to 1,625 with 378 people in ICUs and 199 on ventilators, per Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association Data, but numbers have continued to remain steady.
Friday also marked another days that hospitals statewide were not reporting difficulty in getting personal protective equipment.
All of these elements can be found on VDH’s “Key Measures” page.
VDH is also now sharing the number of cases per zip code, and COVID-19 projection models, such as one from the University of Virginia, that it’s using to gauge progress.
Local case increases since Thursday
Here’s the latest case breakdown for Tidewater, where 52 new cases and 3 deaths were reported Friday.
Accomack: 463 cases, 22 hospitalized, 7 deaths (no increases from Thursday)
Accomack, which has the second highest per capita case rate in Virginia (1,428) reported no new cases for the first time since April 21, after reporting 30 new cases on Thursday to pass Virginia Beach’s total. (For comparison, Accomack has about 32,000 residents and Virginia Beach, Virginia’s most populous city, has about 450,000)
Closer look: Cases broken down by ZIP code
But a graph of Accomack’s reported cases has shown sharp dips and peaks in daily cases, which can be attributed to lag in reporting. After days of small case numbers, numbers have rebounded. Gov. Ralph Northam says the county’s two chicken plants, Tyson and Perdue, have done widescale testing of employees after outbreaks at the facilities and those results are due back soon.
Free community testing is also being done on the Shore this weekend.
The Eastern Shore is reporting 8 outbreaks total, with 3 now at long-term care facilities. The original long-term care outbreak was at Heritage Hall in Northampton County, and two more were reported on Thursday.
The Eastern Shore Post reports one of the facilities is Shore Health and Rehabilitation in Parksley, but the other facility has not been identified. The health department is not required to identify the facilities by name, despite public outcry. NBC Washington reports that the federal government is getting ready to release that information, even though states such as Virginia have kept that information private, citing state code.
Chesapeake: 316 cases, 68 hospitalized, 9 deaths (+5 new cases from Thursday)
Franklin: 23 cases, 2 hospitalized, 1 deaths (no increases)
Gloucester: 27 cases, 7 hospitalized, 1 death (no increases)
Hampton: 135 cases, 28 hospitalized, 3 deaths (+7 cases)
Isle of Wight: 105 cases, 10 hospitalized, 3 deaths (+2 cases)
James City County: 170 cases, 52 hospitalized, 15 deaths (+3 cases)
Mathews: 4 cases, 1 hospitalized, 0 deaths (no increases)
Newport News: 144 cases, 35 hospitalized, 10 deaths (+7 cases)
Norfolk: 274 cases, 50 hospitalized, 5 deaths (+4 cases, +2 hospitalizations)
Northampton: 149 cases 9 hospitalized, 5 deaths (+2 hospitalizations, +2 deaths)
Northampton County (population roughly 12,000), Accomack’s neighbor to the south, has the 3rd highest rate of cases per with 1,270 and now has Virginia’s fourth highest fatality rate, 43 per 100K.
Poquoson: 7 cases, 2 hospitalized, 0 deaths (no increases)
Portsmouth: 194 cases, 37 hospitalized, 8 deaths (+1 case)
Southampton: 129 cases, 3 hospitalized, 1 death (+1 case)
Suffolk: 209 cases, 39 hospitalized, 19 deaths (+1 case, +1 hospitalization)
Virginia Beach: 469 cases, 84 hospitalized, 17 deaths (+15 cases, +1 hospitalization)
Williamsburg: 31 cases, 8 hospitalized, 2 deaths (+2 cases)
York: 55 cases, 8 hospitalized, 2 deaths (+4 cases, +1 death)
Increases since last Friday, May 1 and main takeaways:
There have been 571 new cases in Tidewater in the last week.
Eastern Shore total (Accomack and Northampton): 227 – 39.79% of total
Rest of Tidewater: 344
Accomack: +160 cases, +3 hospitalizations, +2 deaths (52% increase in cases, 2nd highest in state per capita)
Chesapeake: +60 cases, +8 hospitalizations, +2 deaths (23% increase in cases)
Franklin: +0 cases, +1 hospitalization (Last cases reported on Friday, May 1)
Gloucester: +3 cases, +2 hospitalizations (Only death reported on April 15)
Hampton: +16 cases +2 deaths (2 of Hampton’s 3 deaths reported last week, Hampton hasn’t reported 10 or more cases since April 18)
Isle of Wight: +16 cases, +1 hospitalization, +1 death (53 cases from April 14 to April 19 — 19 since then and 6 in last week)
James City County: +10 cases +1 hospitalization, +3 deaths (Before this week, last deaths reported on April 19, daily cases below 5 since April 5)
Mathews: no changes (Last case reported on April 25)
Newport News: +24 cases, +2 hospitalizations, +1 death (20% increase in cases)
Norfolk: + 70 cases, +8 hospitalizations, +2 deaths (34% increase in cases, 2 of Norfolk’s 5 deaths in last week)Northampton: +67 cases, +6 hospitalizations, +5 deaths (all of Northampton’s deaths came in last week, 82% increase in cases in last week, 3rd highest in state per capita)
Poquoson: +1 case (Poquoson hadn’t reported a new case since April 10)
Portsmouth: +24 cases, +4 hospitalizations, +1 death (only major daily spike in cases was 35 on April 28)
Southampton: +4 cases (Southampton’s only reported 4 cases since reporting 106 cases between April 23 and April 30)Suffolk: +34 cases, +7 hospitalizations, +6 deaths (19% increase in cases, 14 of Suffolk’s 19 deaths have come in just over the last week)
Virginia Beach: +73 cases, +3 hospitalizations, +3 deaths (18% increase in cases)York: +9 cases, +2 hospitalizations, +1 death (19.5% increase in cases)
This article will be updated. To see more local data from VDH, click here, and click on the “Locality” tab.