Henrico reports lowest 2 COVID-19 daily case counts in 2 months

Henrico County has reported two of its lowest daily totals of new COVID-19 cases in the past two months on consecutive days – 66 Sunday and 77 Monday – according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The county’s seven-day average declined to 109 daily cases, continuing a downward trend following a spike in mid-January.

Sunday’s new case count was Henrico’s lowest since Dec. 3, according to the VDH.

The county also reported one new hospitalization related to the coronavirus Monday, and no new virus-related deaths, according to the VDH.

As of Feb. 11, the seven-day average moving positivity rate among PCR tests was 8.7 percent and among rapid tests was 7.3 percent – both of which have decreased dramatically since the start of the year, according to VDH data. This data intentionally lags behind to include as many testing encounters as possible.

Testing in Henrico also is down during the past month or so; an average of about 1,835 daily tests (just more than 600 of them rapid tests, the others PCR tests) were being conducted in the county each day during the seven-day period ending Feb. 11. By contrast, nearly 2,500 daily tests were being conducted on average in the county one month ago.

Henrico County has had a total of 164 outbreaks since the pandemic began, according to VDH data. The number of cases related to these outbreaks has reached 3,296. More than 1,050 healthcare workers in the county have contracted the virus.

Among state localities, Henrico continues to provide promising vaccination rates. More than 54,000 vaccine doses have been administered in the county, and about 12,000 Henricoans have received both vaccines necessary for full inoculation, according to VDH data.

Statewide, more than 12 percent of Virginians have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the VDH; that's more than 1 million vaccinations since December. The average amount of doses administered each day has leveled out to almost 35,000.

UVA study suggests fewer than 20% of Virginians may have had COVID so far

Meanwhile Monday, a University of Virginia study concluded that by August, the number of actual cases of COVID-19 in Virginia likely was only about 2.8 times greater than the known number of confirmed cases at the time.

The study fund that only about 2 percent of Virginians had antibodies to the virus at that time.

“If we use these data to project to today, we would project that as of February 2021, still under 20% of Virginians may have been exposed to the virus,” said Eric Houpt, MD, the chief of UVA Health’s Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health.

UVA researchers tested the blood of 4,675 outpatients at five health systems statewide in August, including VCU Health System in Richmond. Each site enrolled as many as 1,000 residents ages 18 or older who were not being evaluated for COVID-19 at the time.

Participants were selected to match the general demographics of each region.

Of the 101 found with COVID-19 antibodies, researchers determined that about two-thirds were asymptomatic. Of those 101, 42 were Hispanic.

Those found to have antibodies were more likely to live in multifamily housing and to have had contact with a patient confirmed to have COVID-19, the researchers found.

– Tom Lappas contributed to this article