Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Oct. 24 – Martinsville Bulletin

A Martinsville resident is the latest person in the West Piedmont Health District to have died of COVID-19. That death emerged this morning in the report from the Virginia Department of Health, but deaths lag in reporting because cause is verified by the death certificate. This is the 24th death in in the city and the 87th in the district. The cases continue to mount, as well, with 44 more this morning. And has been the case all month, Franklin County had the most, with 27. Henry County reported 9 new cases, Martinsville had 5, and Patrick County had 3. There was a new hospitalization in Franklin and Patrick Counties. That's now 2,852 cases and 290 hospitalizations in the district since the pandemic began. The woman from Patrick County who died recently of COVID-19 was the first in the county in several weeks. But Franklin County's case numbers continue to soar. Even with the pandemic, two traditional fund-raising events in the area will go on Saturday: Wine By the River at Smith-River Sports Complex and the MLC Foundation event at the NCI parking lot have adjusted to allow for social distancing and safety. Friday was a record for the most cases of the novel coronavirus, with more than 80,000 reported. Many are in rural areas. President Trump continues to downplay the surge.The 7-day rolling average for new daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpassed 61,140 Thursday, compared with 44,647 two weeks ago. As of today, the total cases will reach 8.5 million. There were nearly 500,000 new cases worldwide since Friday morning. The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 172,372 cases and 3,578 deaths statewide -- up by 39 from Friday. Some 12,198 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 1,283 cases, with 134 hospitalizations and 31 deaths. Martinsville has had 477 cases, with 64 hospitalizations and 24 deaths. Patrick County has had 317 cases including 58 hospitalizations and 27 deaths. Franklin County has had 775 cases, 34 hospitalizations and 5 deaths. Danville has reported 1,167 cases (42 deaths), and Pittsylvania County has had 1,255 (17 deaths).Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 42,288,341 cases worldwide and 1,145,557 deaths. In the U.S. there have been 8,494,415 cases and 223,998 deaths because of COVID-19.

(220) updates to this series since Updated 9 hrs ago

Go here to read the rest:

Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Oct. 24 - Martinsville Bulletin