Holsworth: June 5, 2020, Virginia Covid-19 Update

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association’s (VHHA) daily report showed that number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals declined yesterday from 1266-1205.

There has been a 319-patient count decline in the past 7 days, from 1524 to 1205, far and away the best week since VHHA started its reporting in early April.

The number of patients on ventilators (161) is also the lowest count since VHHA began reporting.

2. Case Growth Rise Continues Decline

Yesterday’s case rise of 676 patients lowered the 3-day moving average to 764, the best number we’ve seen in weeks. We continue to see case growth decline in NOVA communities which had been leading case growth percentages in the Commonwealth for most of the pandemic.

The 7-day test positivity percentage continued its decline as well, moving down to 10.1%. In addition, the number of tests per day has been sustained at a higher level than earlier in the pandemic.

There were 95 reported COVID-19 deaths this week. While still far too many, this is the best week we have seen since the middle of April.

In the 3 largest metros, the highest percentage case growth rate for the past week had been in RVA. There were 163 additional cases per day in the metro RVA communities this week, 151 cases per day last week. It is not a surge, but we’ve yet to see the significant decline in daily case numbers that is evident in NOVA.

Overall, this is far and away the most encouraging week of trends we’ve seen – hospitalizations, case growth, test positivity rates, death rates all down.