31 new COVID-related deaths reported in Henrico; most likely occurred weeks ago
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Thirty-one new COVID-19-related deaths have been reported in Henrico County since Saturday – including 18 Monday – but it’s likely that most or all of those occurred weeks ago because the Virginia Department of Health is just now processing 2021 death certificates related to the post-holiday surge of cases.
“As a result, a larger number of deaths is expected to be added by report date,” the agency indicated on its website Monday.
As infections across the country continue to slow, Henrico County reported just 55 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, according to the VDH. The declining infection rate is reflected in the low seven-day moving average of 80 daily cases. (The county reported 74 new cases Saturday and 85 Sunday.)
Despite the decreasing number in cases, Henrico had six new hospitalizations related to the virus Monday, following just two this weekend, according to VDH data.
As the county approaches 300,000 total PCR testing encounters, the positivity rate continues to hover around 8 percent as of Feb. 18, according to VDH data. The positivity rate among rapid antigen tests reached 7.2 percent. These counts lag behind a few days to include as many testing encounters as possible.
Vaccination efforts in Henrico have kept the county third in the state with the highest number of vaccines administered, ranking only behind Virginia Beach and Fairfax County, according to VDH data. More than 61,000 Henricoans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with more than 17,000 people fully vaccinated with both doses necessary for full inoculation.
Henrico County has had 167 outbreaks since the pandemic began, with more than 3,300 associated cases, according to the VDH. The number of healthcare workers that have contracted the virus has surpassed 1,070.
More than 13 percent of Virginia's population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the VDH. Almost half a million Virginians have been fully vaccinated. But because bad weather delayed the shipment of about 106,000 doses of Moderna vaccine last week, the state’s average number of doses administered each day plummeted over the weekend, reaching just more than 30,000 daily vaccinations.
