Uptick in COVID hospitalizations reported over holidays

Although the current COVID variant is not as potent as those in the recent past,  Virginia’s emergency rooms reported an uptick in COVID diagnoses heading into the Christmas weekend.   

For the week ending December 23, 2023,  3.5% of the diagnoses in Virginia emergency rooms involved COVID.  That was up 28% over the previous week according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The increase can be attributed to the number of gatherings that normally occur during the weeks before and of Christmas.