PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Department of Health reported a major increase of 96 new COVID-19 deaths statewide on Tuesday due to a backlog of data.
Death reporting lags a day a COVID-19 patient actually died, meaning a majority of the deaths reported Tuesday happened well before. VDH acknowledged the backlog on its website Tuesday and said it “is working diligently to identify COVID-19 related deaths using vital record death certificate information.” WAVY has reached out to the health department for additional comment.
VDH’s “deaths by date of death” graph shows the day of death written on the birth certificate, and gives a better picture, though it’s unclear when exactly when the new deaths reported on Tuesday occurred. Most happened before the past 7 days, with the graph showing a jump in deaths around August 21. The gray areas of the chart indicate that deaths there may have not been reported yet.
Here’s the “deaths by date reported” graph, which has more pronounced ebbs and flows.
VDH also reported 943 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, below its average of 1,015 new cases per day. It also reported a slight increase in current hospitalzations, up 9 patients to 1,015 overall.
Statewide numbers:
New cases: (+943, 135,514 total), steady around 1,000 cases per day
New deaths (+96, 2,839 total), high reported increase due to backlog, trend up
Hospitalizations (+9 patients, 1,015 total), trending down overall
Testing (7.1% 7-day average of positive tests), recent downward trend
- Accomack 1,161 cases, 88 hospitalized, 19 deaths (unchanged)
- Chesapeake: 4,096 cases, 373 hospitalized, 53 deaths (+10 cases, 1 hospitalizations, +4 deaths)
- Franklin: 377 cases, 15 hospitalized, 9 deaths (+1 case)
- Gloucester: 227 cases, 13 hospitalized, 2 deaths (+1 case)
- Hampton: 1,730 cases, 58 hospitalized, 19 deaths (+7 cases, 2 deaths)
- Isle of Wight: 666 cases, 27 hospitalized, 12 deaths (+14 cases, +2 deaths)
- James City County: 801 cases, 63 hospitalized, 19 deaths (+2 cases, +1 death)
- Mathews: 25 cases, 2 hospitalized, 0 deaths (unchanged)
- Newport News: 2,591 cases, 90 hospitalized, 32 deaths (+5 cases, +4 deaths)
- Norfolk: 4,676 cases, 337 hospitalized, 66 deaths (+25 cases, +4 hospitalizations, +5 deaths)
- Northampton: 304 cases, 49 hospitalized, 29 deaths (unchanged)
- Poquoson: 76 cases, 3 hospitalized, 1 deaths (+1 case)
- Portsmouth: 2,424 cases, 258 hospitalized, 46 deaths (+33 cases, +3 hospitalizations, +1 death)
- Southampton: 474 cases, 20 hospitalized, 16 deaths (+12 cases, +2 deaths)
- Suffolk: 1,858 cases, 118 hospitalized, 64 deaths (+16 cases, +1 death)
- Virginia Beach: 6,523 cases, 349 hospitalized, 74 deaths (+41 cases, +7 hospitalizations, +2 deaths)
- Williamsburg: 167 cases, 12 hospitalized, 7 deaths (+4 cases, +1 death)
- York: 509 cases, 15 hospitalized, 6 deaths (+2 cases)
Key local metrics
- 174 new cases, slight increase recently but down overall
- 25 new deaths, trending down (7-day average back down to about 1 per day from recent high of 6 per day)
- Current hospitalizations: +2 patients, 282 patients total — trending down overall
- 7-day rate of positive tests (excluding Eastern Shore): 6.9%, trending down
Chesapeake — 6.2% — trending down (steep drop)
Eastern Shore — 1.6% — low overall, (low overall testing)
Hampton— 5.8% — trending down (steep drop)
Norfolk — 6.4% — trending down, high of 17% reported on July 12
Peninsula — 5.6% — trending down (steep drop)
Portsmouth — 9.4% — trending down overall, but still relatively high
Virginia Beach — 5% — trending down
Western Tidewater — 10.2% — trending down overall, but still relatively high
This is a breaking article and will be updated. For more information from VDH, click here.