Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 29 – Martinsville Bulletin

There's another death today from COVID-19 in the West Piedmont Health District. The Virginia Department of Health reported that the 34th resident of Franklin County has died from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. That's now 171 deaths in the health district. We don't know exactly when this death might have occurred because VDH often waits for death certificates to confirm cause. All data are tracked by the residence. Little else is known. This death followed the deadliest day in the district and was the second consecutive in Franklin County. The number of new cases declined this morning, with 57 being reported after two consecutive days of triple-digit rises. There were, however, 5 new hospitalizations, and hospital officials have said they are seeing more and more severely ill patients in recent weeks. Franklin County posted 19 of the new cases and 2 of the hospitalizations. Henry County and Martinsville each had 15 new cases, and Henry County had the other hospitalizations. Patrick County had 8 new cases. Since the pandemic began, that's now 9,392 cases, 546 hospitalizations and 171 deaths in the health district....COVID-19 equaled its deadliest day in the West Piedmont Health District with the 10 deaths revealed Thursday matching the record set on Sept. 15. The next highest total is seven, from August....About 320 area residents took part in a major turn-around point of the coronavirus pandemic: They were the first of the general public to get vaccinated....Johnson & Johnsons long-awaited vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses.....A new coronavirus variant first found in South Africa has now been detected in more than 30 countries, including the US. Another variant, first found in Brazil, has showed up in Minnesota. While all these variants aren't necessarily surprising, afew of them have scientists worried because they seem to be more transmissibleand so could tax health care systems even further. In a worst-case scenario, they could also evade the protection of vaccines. Scientists are also still trying to figure outhow to treat "long Covid," a condition in which patients experience prolonged symptomsafter their initial infection has passed. Meanwhile, a team of investigators from theWorld Health Organization is currently in China, visiting labs, hospitals and markets to look into the origins of the pandemic....Democrats in Congress and the White House have rejected a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden's$1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue planinto smaller chunks, with lawmakers appearing primed to muscle the sweeping economic and virus aid forward without GOP help....The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 497,912 cases and 6,379 deaths statewide -- up by 71 since Thursday. Some 21,241 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 3,699 cases, with 249 hospitalizations and 73 deaths. Martinsville has had 1,360 cases, with 115 hospitalizations and 36 deaths. Patrick County has had 1,043 cases including 76 hospitalizations and 28 deaths. Franklin County has had 3,290 cases, 106 hospitalizations and 34 deaths. Danville has reported 3,590 cases (66 deaths), and Pittsylvania County has had 4,096 (46 deaths).Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 101,562,751 cases worldwide and 2,193,408 deaths. In the U.S. there have been 25,768,826 cases and 433,213 deaths because of COVID-19.

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Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 29 - Martinsville Bulletin