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Henrico County experienced 113 new cases of COVID-19 during the past three days, according to the Virginia Department of Health, but its 7-day positivity percentage continues to drop slightly.
The agency attributed three deaths among Henrico residents to the virus during the weekend, though it’s unknown when those deaths occurred. The VDH has been working through a backlog of deaths, according to its website. The victims were in three different age ranges: 40s, 50s and 80-plus; their deaths bring the county’s death toll from the virus to 209.
During the weekend, six Henrico residents were reported hospitalized by the virus, according to the VDH. That increased the total number of COVID-related hospitalizations among Henricoans to 416 since the pandemic began – an average of about 69 per month.
The county’s 7-day positivity percentage continued its slight downward arc, dropping to 6.3% as of Sept. 17, the most recent date for which the data is available. That figure was helped by a busy testing day on the 17th, when more than 1,600 tests resulted in just 53 positive testing encounters. The percent positivity rate should decline again tomorrow to reflect a similar day of significant testing Sept. 18 (1,570 tests) and small number of positive encounters (39).
Overall, Henrico data is following state and national trends when it comes to the virus, showing that people in their 20s account for a higher percentage of confirmed cases than any other age group (in Henrico about 18 percent; statewide about 21 percent) but a fraction of hospitalizations (5 percent in Henrico and 4 percent statewide) and deaths (about 0.5 percent in Henrico and roughly 0.2 percent statewide).
About 42 percent of those hospitalized in Henrico have been 70 or older, while 13 percent have been 39 or younger.
In Henrico, the virus has killed 110 women and 99 men. Men and women hospitalized by it have been split almost equally in number.
Blacks in Henrico are contracting COVID at a rate almost identically proportionate to their population but are suffering negative consequences from it at disproportionately higher rates – and also at rates disproportionate to those of Blacks statewide.
Blacks compose about 31 percent of Henrico’s population and account for the same percentage of COVID cases, but they account for nearly half of the county’s COVID-related hospitalizations and more than 40 percent of its deaths, according to the VDH data.
Statewide, Blacks compose a smaller portion of Virginia’s population (about 20 percent) than they do in Henrico, and overall in Virginia they account for nearly 30 percent of all COVID-related hospitalizations and 26 percent of all COVID deaths.
Latinos in Henrico also are being hospitalized by the virus at a rate disproportionate to their population; they account for more than 16 percent of all COVID cases and 13 percent of hospitalizations in the county but compose just 6 percent of its population.
