COVID test positives continue to rise on the Shore

Hospitalization and death counts remain low locally

The Eastern Shore experienced another spike in test positives. 

According to the Monday Virginia Department of Health dashboard,  Accomack County reported 109 test positives as of Friday at 5 pm.  Northampton reported 31.   There was one hospitalization in Accomack County and none in Northampton. No additional deaths were reported in either county.

Accomack County is currently reporting 2,397 cases per 100,000 people and Northampton is reporting 2,182 per 100,000. These numbers are closing in on the statewide average 14 day per 100,000 count which was reported to be 2,476 on Monday.

The smaller number of deaths and hospitalizations thus far could be attributed to reports that the Omicron strain is not as severe as the original Coronavirus or the Delta variant, however it does appear to be much more contagious.  Since hospitalizations and deaths are both lagging indicators, it remains to be seen if those numbers increase in the coming days.

Virginia smashed its daily COVID-19 case record over the weekend, reporting 26,175 additional COVID-19 test positives Saturday, more than 2.5 times more than the highest daily total set before the current wave, which was 9,914 new test positives reported on January 17, 2021. Five new daily COVID-19 test positive records have been set since December 30.

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