Update: Another big day in COVID-19 positives, hospitals continue to handle patients

The Virginia Department of Health reported 3,860 new positive COVID-19 tests on Tuesday. Hospital census is 13,060, 79.3 percent of the state’s overall hospital capacity.

The seven-day average for new COVID-19 positives is 3,238. The seven-day average for hospital census is 13,115, 79.6 percent of the state’s overall hospital capacity.

The number of beds occupied today by patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are awaiting COVID-19 test results is 1,918.

The seven-day average there: 1,852.

For some context: a month ago, on Nov. 8, the seven-day moving average for COVID-19 patients in Virginia hospitals was 1,056.

Also on Nov. 8, the seven-day average for hospital census was 12,852, 78.0 percent of the state’s overall hospital capacity.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 796 a day from a month ago; overall hospitalizations are up 263 a day.

This as the seven-day average of new COVID-19 positives is up from 1,398 a day on Nov. 8 to the 3,238 a day as of today – an increase of 1,840.

COVID positives have more than doubled; COVID hospitalizations are up roughly 80 percent; hospital capacity has barely moved.

What we’re working on

We’re working on getting a couple of key metrics to provide more context from VDH.

As we reported on Monday, the percentage of visits to Virginia emergency departments and urgent care centers for influenza-like illness is down more than 50 percent.

We know the percent; what we don’t know is the raw number.

Could the raw number decrease in ILI visits correlate to what we’re seeing in terms of COVID-19 test numbers?

We’re working to get VDH to give us those numbers.

Ostensibly, they have raw numbers, to be able to generate the percentages.

One other important bit of context we’re seeking from VDH: past year hospital census numbers.

This is particularly relevant in terms of addressing the factor of seasonality for both COVID and influenza.

Hospitals seem to be faring well, for now, in our COVID winter. How does this compare to past winter flu seasons?

We get daily hospital census updates from VDH on its COVID-19 dashboard.

Past year census data shouldn’t be hard to track down.

Story by Chris Graham