New COVID-19 cases in Henrico continue to surge
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Henrico topped 200 new COVID-19 cases on a single day on Wednesday for the first time since Feb. 5.
The county reported 203 new cases, one day after reporting 183. It’s now averaging 153 new daily cases during the past week, in line with rapidly rising totals statewide and nationally as the new highly contagious Omicron variant sweeps the country.
Henrico reported only two new hospitalizations Wednesday and continues to average just one per day in the past week. It has reported one death since Dec. 17.
The Omicron variant now is believed to account for more than 75% of all new cases in the Richmond and Henrico Health districts, an RHHD spokesperson said Tuesday. That total reflects similar numbers statewide and nationally. The variant is much more easily transmissible than previous variants, though preliminary studies appear to show that it results in less severe outcomes than did others. Still unknown is whether that’s because more people have some level of natural or vaccine immunity, however.
Henrico’s seven-day positivity percentage among PCR testing encounters inched up Wednesday to 9.6% (slightly below the statewide average of 10%), while its rate among rapid testing encounters increased to 10.8% (higher than the statewide average of 9.6%).
Excluding the first month or so of the pandemic, when testing was very limited, the county’s peak positivity levels came nearly one year ago (Jan. 6) when they reached 15.2% among PCR testing encounters and 17.6% among rapid testing encounters.
All but three localities in Virginia – Brunswick, Sussex and Southampton counties in the southeastern part of the state – are back in the “high” community transmission level designation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s standards.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s anti-COVID drug Paxlovid for use, bringing the first post-infection pill to market for the public. The pill’s five-day regimen has been shown to prevent severe illness in high-risk people infected by the virus when they begin it within several days of symptoms.
