COVID-19 positive test and hospitalization numbers in Virginia are plummeting, trends that follow what is happening across the U.S.
Good news on a Monday morning, this first day of February.
The Monday update to the Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 data dashboard reported 2,861 new positive COVID test results, after a Sunday report of 2,558 new test results.
Remember that two weeks ago, back on Jan. 17, VDH reported 9,914 positives in a single day.
The reporting on that date was clearly an outlier. The seven-day moving average of COVID positives peaked a day later at 6,166.
The average today: 4,146, a drop of 32.8 percent.
Going back to that Jan. 17 date, VDH reported that there were 4,041 people with a confirmed positive test result, or were considered a probable COVID case just awaiting a test result, in Virginia hospitals.
The number of COVID patients in Virginia hospitals today: 2,441.
That’s a 39.6 percent decrease in two weeks.
The hospitalization trend nationwide is following a similar trend.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, the number of people hospitalized nationwide with a positive COVID-19 test or considered a COVID probable was at 95,013 as of the Sunday update to its dashboard.
The peak, back on Jan. 12, was 131,326.
The decrease over the 19-day period: 27.7 percent.
The total in hospitals is at its lowest point since Nov. 29.
The national drop in hospitalizations tracks with a drop nationally in positive COVID tests. From a review of COVID Tracking Project data, the average for the seven-day period ending on Sunday was 144,861, down 40.3 percent from the peak seven-day average of 242,464 for the week of Jan. 4-10.
Story by Chris Graham