COVID-19 trending up in Virginia; new vaccine to be available in September – The Virginian-Pilot

The spread of COVID-19 has been on the rise again in Virginia recent months following a steady decline through early May, state data shows, and diagnosis is 128% higher than this time last year.

Experts advise that the public get the new vaccine, which should be available within a few weeks.

For the week ending Aug. 10, 3% of emergency department visits were for patients diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a Virginia Department of Health spokesperson. State health officials also monitor wastewater to gauge the spread of the coronavirus, and activity is considered very high in Virginia and nationally.

Wastewater data is useful to experts because its independent of the publics decision to get tested or seek medical care, said Logan Anderson, a VDH spokesperson.

The very high levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater likely means that many people are sick with COVID-19 but have more mild illness and are able to recover at home, Anderson said in an email.

Anderson added that, in keeping with the seasonal pattern of COVID-19, experts expect the virus to have a peak in late summer then worsen again mid-winter with another peak around the new year.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that everyone six months and older should get a 2024-25 coronavirus vaccine expected to be available in mid- to late-September. This latest inoculation is designed to target the KP.2 variant, which was causing about 4% of COVID-19 infections as of March but became the most common variant by May is expected to remain so this fall and winter, according to Anderson.

When you are sick, stay home and only go back to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both your symptoms have improved and you have no fever without the use of anti-fever medication, Anderson said. If you have flu or COVID talk to a health-care provider to see if antiviral treatment is right for you.

The COVID-19 deaths for the week ending Aug. 10 are 1.7% what they were in January 2021, according to the CDC.

The rate of coronavirus hospitalizations for all age groups was about 4 per 100,000 people in mid-March before dropping to about 0.4 per 100,000 people by mid-May. Since then, the rate has slowly climbed back up to just over 2 per 100,000 as of the week ending Aug. 10, according to the VDH.

Hospitalizations for the week ending Aug. 10 were up 10.4% from the previous week. Over the past six months in Virginia, the peak of COVID-19-related deaths came the week ending March 16 when 24 people died. The lowest point came the week ending June 29 when one person died. From there, deaths spiked again the week of July 20 when 14 people died, with five deaths from the disease through Aug. 3.

Over the past six months, the percent of total inpatient hospital beds in use by COVID-19 patients has reached a new peak, though still considered low by VDH. Since the low point of 0.42% for the week ending June 1, the percent of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients has risen to 2.23% for the week ending Aug. 10 the pre-June 1 peak was 1.6% which is 18.6% higher than the previous week.

Gavin Stone,757-712-4806,gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

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COVID-19 trending up in Virginia; new vaccine to be available in September - The Virginian-Pilot