As testing increases significantly, Henrico ties single-day high for COVID cases

Henrico’s busiest week for new COVID-19 cases continued Friday, as the county tied its single-day record – set just two days ago – with 95 new cases, according to the Virginia Department of Health. So far since Sunday, Henrico has reported 438 new cases – the most in a 6-day period since the pandemic began.

Ten new hospitalizations also were reported in Henrico Friday – the most in a single day since May 29 and the fourth-most related to the virus on one day in the county so far. (The top three days – 14, 12 and 11 – all occurred in mid-April).

The higher confirmed case counts seemingly are due in part to increased levels of testing among county residents.

During the seven-day period from Nov. 10-16, more than 1,330 people per day were tested in Henrico. That was up from from just 817 average tests per day between Nov. 2-8.

As a result, the county’s 7-day positivity percentage has trended slightly downward this week, even as the new confirmed cases increase. It declined to 5.3% as of Nov. 16, the most recent date on file for the metric, which intentionally lags several days behind in order to catch as many tests and associated results from a given window of time.

– Will Gonzalez contributed to this article