Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 26 – Martinsville Bulletin

Three new deaths from COVID-19 were reported this morning in the West Piedmont Health District. Those deaths appeared in the Virginia Department of Health's database, but those deaths could have occurred at just about any time. VDH often awaits death certificates to confirm cause of death. We don't know much about individual deaths, but each case is tracked by a person's residence. There was one death each in Martinsville, Henry County and Franklin County. That's now 160 residents of the health district who have died from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and Henry County and Martinsville have combined to account for 100 of them (68 in the county and 32 in the city). Franklin County now has had 32 deaths. There also were 87 new cases and 2 hospitalizations. Franklin County, where schools resumed in-person learning today, had 40 new cases, and Henry County and Martinsville had 23 new cases apiece. Patrick County had 1 new case. Martinsville had both new hospitalizations. Because VDH's website was malfunctioning throughout Tuesday morning, additional information was not available....On Monday, the first day that many residents could sign up for the vaccine, some 18,000 had by late afternoon....Patrick Henry Community Colleges Division of Technology moved quickly to get PHCC running remotely for virtual learning during the pandemic....President Biden says he hopes the U.S. willsoon be able to administer 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccinea day, and the Defense Department is consideringdeploying thousands of troops to help reach that goal. One official said up to 10,000 troops could be involved. While Americans wait for vaccinations, health officials say they're extremely worried about new COVID-19 variants detected in the U.S. One expert sayseveryday activities are now much more dangerous because of them. In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says thecountry's borders may stay shut for most of the yearto ward off outbreaks. At the core of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, the city of Manaus offers acautionary tale for health care systems on the brink of collapse: tens of thousands of new graves, no beds or oxygen tanks and a second wave promising even more misery.....Californias health department released to the public previously secret projections for future hospital intensive care unit capacity throughout the state, the key metric for lifting the coronavirus stay-at-home order....Britain appears ready to order some travelers arriving from abroad to isolate in hotels at their own expense in an attempt to stop the import of new virus variants....The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 483,326 cases and 6,081 deaths statewide -- up by 93 since Monday. Some 20,860 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 3,578 cases, with 246 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. Martinsville has had 1,317 cases, with 112 hospitalizations and 32 deaths. Patrick County has had 1000 cases including 76 hospitalizations and 28 deaths. Franklin County has had 3,206 cases, 103 hospitalizations and 32 deaths. Danville has reported 3,412 cases (64 deaths), and Pittsylvania County has had 3,952 (46 deaths).Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 99,802,069 cases worldwide and 2,142,650 deaths. In the U.S. there have been 25,298,405 cases and 421,239 deaths because of COVID-19.

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Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 26 - Martinsville Bulletin