Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 23 – Martinsville Bulletin

There are three more deaths from COVID-19 reported this morning in the West Piedmont Health District. The Virginia Department of Health added those three victims -- 2 in Henry County and 1 in Martinsville -- to its database, but they could have happened weeks ago. VDH sometimes waits for death certificates to confirm cause before adding to its database. We don't know much about the specific victims, but VDH does track the data by the person's residence. This is now 67 residents of Henry County and 31 of Martinsville who have died for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. There have been 6 deaths in the past two days in the district and 157 since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations have been on the climb in the district -- there was 1 each reported this morning in Henry County and Martinsville -- but new cases this week has declined after sharp increases earlier this month. There were 60 new cases reported this morning, and the 7-day average is down to 83 from as high as 107 about a week ago. Henry County had 30 of the new cases and now has surpassed 3,500. Franklin County had 14, Martinsville 11 and Patrick County 5. There have been 8,899 cases and 533 hospitalizations in the district....The health district announced in a release on Friday that those specified under the Virginia Department of Healths Phase 1b starting Monday would be able to access registration links on the WPHD website and Facebook page or find paper copies at the health departments, public libraries, municipal buildings and chambers of commerce in Martinsville, Stuart and Rocky Mount....Advocacy groups are warning thatimmigrants in the U.S.may be some of the most difficult people to reach during the national drive to vaccinate the population against the virus....A group of fortunate Americans are getting pushed to thefront of the line to get their COVID-19 vaccinesas clinics scramble to get rid of extra, perishable doses by the end of the day....TheWhite House is following public health guidelinesfor preventing the coronavirus under President Joe Biden. Testing wristbands are in. Mask-wearing is mandatory. Desks are socially distanced....The U.S. is averaging more than 187,000 new cases and about 3,000 deaths each day. The nations death toll since the start of the pandemic now stands at more than 414,000....A major British doctors' group is says the U.K. government should urgently review it's decision to give people a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine up to 12 weeks after the first, rather than the shorter gap recommended by the manufacturer and the World Health Organization.....Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87. He had been hospitalized with COVID-19 a few weeks ago....The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 468,655 cases and 6,079 deaths statewide -- up by 77 since Thursday. Some 20,654 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 3,514 cases, with 246 hospitalizations and 67 deaths. Martinsville has had 1,288 cases, with 110 hospitalizations and 31 deaths. Patrick County has had 981 cases including 75 hospitalizations and 28 deaths. Franklin County has had 3,116 cases, 102 hospitalizations and 31 deaths. Danville has reported 3,273 cases (63 deaths), and Pittsylvania County has had 3,794 (45 deaths).Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 98,277,828 cases worldwide and 2,109,626 deaths. In the U.S. there have been 24,823,197 cases and 414,124 deaths because of COVID-19.

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Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Jan. 23 - Martinsville Bulletin