Omicron’s January surge results in 19 new COVID-related deaths in Henrico
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The deaths of 19 Henrico citizens reported in the past four days have been attributed to the COVID-19 virus, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
The deaths all likely occurred in January as the Omicron variant of the virus surged, according to VDH officials, but were not entered into the VDH’s dashboard until this week.
Of the newly reported deaths, three occurred in people in their 60s, three in people in their 70s and five in people 80 or older. Ages of the other victims were not immediately available through the VDH.
In a statement, VDH officials wrote that the increase in deaths being reported this week locally and statewide also was attributable to the natural delay between the onset of illness to death and the time it takes for the national Center of Health Statistics to review and assign appropriate codes to Virginia death certificates before they are sent back to the VDH.
Thirty COVID-related deaths among Henrico citizens have been reported since Jan. 22, and in total since the pandemic began, Henrico has witnessed 784 deaths.
The Omicron variant appeared to peak in Henrico at the turn of the year; the county’s single-day record for confirmed new COVID-19 cases occurred Jan. 2, when 942 were reported. Since mid-January, the average number of cases during a moving seven-day window generally has decreased, from a peak of 700 Jan. 12 to 266 Friday.
Case counts, however, are less relevant now than at previous times during the pandemic, given that many people are conducting at-home tests that are never reported to the VDH and many others likely have had the virus but not been tested.
Still, combined with hospitalization and death data, they help provide an overall sense of the virus’s ebbs and flows.
COVID-related hospitalizations in Henrico this year peaked the same day average cases did – Jan. 12 – at six. Since Jan. 1, the county has seen a net of 40 such hospitalizations, according to the VDH (43 were reported, but three later removed because they occurred in non-Henrico residents).
For the past six days, Henrico’s new confirmed daily COVID case count has ranged between 211 and 278. It was 271 Friday.
