PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia reported fewer than 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since October (892) on Monday, and its lowest 7-day average of cases per day since November (1,345 cases per day) as its metrics continue to drop.

Virginia’s percent of positive COVID-19 tests (6.2%) and COVID-19 hospitalizations (1,242 patients currently) are also continuing to trend down, but Virginia is still reporting high numbers of deaths as it inputs old death certificates related to the post-holiday surge, with 87 more on Monday.

Most of these deaths happened in January and the first half of February, VDH data shows.

Statewide numbers

  • New cases: (+892, 581,408 total), (1,345 per day on average, record is 6,166)
  • Case incidence rate: 15.8 per 100K people, down from 72 in late January
  • New deaths (+87, 9,683 total), major recent input of past death certificates into the state’s system, but that’s slowed (129 per day 7-day average)
  • Current hospitalizations (+15 patients, 1,242 total), trending down overall
  • Testing (6.2% 7-day average of positive tests), trending down since early January, testing down (about 21K per day on average, was around 35K per day in January)
  • Doses administered (2,306,251 total doses, 52,575 per day on average, 823,887 fully vaccinated, 17.5% with at least one dose 
  • Doses distributed (2,748,835 total), 87.5% first doses administered and 71.3% second doses administered, Virginia’s first dose allotment for Pfizer and Moderna now up to 180,000 per week, with 69,000 more from Johnson & Johnson last week, plus 52K weekly from the federal pharmacy program.

Monday also brought long-awaited guidance from the CDC on what vaccinated people are able to safely do.

The CDC says fully-vaccinated people can gather safely indoors, but should continue to wear masks in public to avoid possibly spreading the virus to the unvaccinated. Fully-vaccinated people can also be with unvaccinated people in private settings, as long as the unvaccinated people are at low-risk for COVID-19, the CDC says.

Though cases and trending down in Virginia and across the country, health experts say that masking and other public health measures are still needed to help push virus levels down even further, and help avoid a possible “fourth wave” of infections fueled by coronavirus variants.

For the latest vaccine news for Virginia and North Carolina, visit WAVY’s vaccine page.

Local cases

  • Accomack: 2,625 cases, 188 hospitalized, 35 deaths (+1 hospitalized)
  • Chesapeake: 18,552 cases, 862 hospitalized, 236 deaths (+33 cases, +1 hospitalized, +4 deaths)
  • Franklin: 1026 cases, 52 hospitalized, 27 deaths (+3 cases, +1 hospitalized)
  • Gloucester: 1,923 cases, 51 hospitalized, 44 deaths (+9 cases, +1 death)
  • Hampton: 8,837 cases, 303 hospitalized, 130 deaths (+12 cases, +1 death)
  • Isle of Wight: 2,698 cases, 122 hospitalized, 58 deaths (+7 cases, +2 hospitalized)
  • James City County: 3,942 cases, 131 hospitalized, 65 deaths (+7 cases)
  • Mathews: 557 cases, 20 hospitalized, 11 deaths (+1 case)
  • Newport News: 11,753 cases, 318 hospitalized, 190 deaths (+18 cases)
  • Norfolk: 15,178 cases, 829 hospitalized, 220 deaths (+22 cases, +3 deaths)
  • Northampton: 727 cases, 73 hospitalized, 34 deaths (no change)
  • Poquoson: 733 cases, 20 hospitalized, 15 deaths (+1 case)
  • Portsmouth: 7,831 cases, 592 hospitalized, 150 deaths (+7 cases, +2 hospitalized, +1 death)
  • Southampton: 1,861 cases, 49 hospitalized, 52 deaths (no change)
  • Suffolk: 7,027 cases, 407 hospitalized, 168 deaths (+10 cases, +7 hospitalized, +1 death)
  • Virginia Beach: 31,182 cases, 1,310 hospitalized, 338 deaths (+51 cases, +3 deaths)
  • Williamsburg: 548 cases, 24 hospitalized, 12 deaths (+3 cases)
  • York: 3,122 cases, 52 hospitalized, 41 deaths (+8 cases, +2 deaths)

This article will be updated.