The seven-day average for new COVID-19 positive test results in Virginia is at an all-time high. Good news: hospitalization usage is still holding steady.
The VDH dashboard reports that the seven-day average of new COVID-19 positives is at 3,005, updated through Monday.
The average for the past three days is 3,830.
For comparison, the seven-day average a month ago – on Nov. 7 – was 1,383 new positives per day.
So, big bump – huge bump – in the number of new positive test results.
But look at hospital usage: back on Nov. 7, the VDH dashboard reported 12,791 occupied hospital beds in the state – 77.6 percent of the state’s 16,476 staffed beds.
Today: 12,754 beds are in use – 77.4 percent.
This as the number of people in hospitals with a positive COVID-19 test or awaiting a positive test result has increased from 1,062 on Nov. 7 to 1,885 on Dec. 7.
Interesting trendline here: COVID positive test numbers more than doubling, COVID hospitalizations nearly doubling, overall hospital use a smidge down.
Inside the Numbers: Decline in influenza
One possible contributing factor: VDH reports that visits to emergency departments and urgent care centers for influenza-like illnesses are down more than 50 percent from a year ago.
For the week ending Nov. 30, 1.6 percent of ED and UCC visits were for influenza-like illness, according to VDH.
In the week ending Nov. 30, 2019, 3.3 percent of ED and UCC visits were for influenza-like illness.
There were three noticeable peaks in the 2019-2020 flu season:
- The week of Dec. 28, 2019 reached a high of 7.9 percent of ED and UCC visits being for ILI.
- The second peak was for the week of Feb. 6, 2020, at 8.9 percent.
- The third peak was the week of March 14, 2020, at 8.2 percent.
The ED and UCC visits for ILI metric has, to this point, remained well below last year’s baseline.
The ILI trendline will be worth watching over the next several weeks.
Story by Chris Graham
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