Virginia Passes 1 Million COVID-19 Cases As Infections Surge Again

VIRGINIA — Virginia passed 1 million reported cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a grim milestone that few predicted would be reached when the first case was announced by state health officials in early March 2020.

Similar to the surge a year ago, COVID-19 cases in Virginia and across the nation are climbing again. The average number of reported cases per day in Virginia has almost doubled from late November, up to about 2,500 cases per day.

Hospitalizations are up by about 300 patients from two weeks ago, and the seven-day testing positivity rate for COVID-19 tests has increased from 8.1 percent to 8.7 percent over the past four days, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

As of Monday, 1,000,694 Virginians had tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and 14,957 residents had died from the disease.

On March 7, 2020, the VDH reported the state's first positive COVID-19 case, a U.S. Marine at Fort Belvoir. At the time, public health officials said they had not seen any evidence that COVID-19 was spreading in Virginia.

A week later, on March 14, 2020, health officials in Virginia reported the first death from COVID-19. A man in his 70s who lived in the Peninsula Health District died from respiratory failure as a result of COVID-19, the VDH said.

Today, as the state passes 1 million COVID-19 cases, most of the infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to be in the unvaccinated. Between Jan. 17, 2021, and Dec. 5, 2021, unvaccinated people developed COVID-19 at a rate 4.3 times that of fully vaccinated residents, according to the VDH.

As of Monday, 77.3 percent of adults in Virginia were fully vaccinated, while 66.5 percent of the entire population is fully vaccinated.

Most health regions in Virginia are now “in surge” or experiencing “slow growth.” This marks the first time any district has been in surge since the first week of October, according to the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute’s weekly update released Friday.

In Northern Virginia, Loudoun County is the only health district currently “in surge,” while the rest of the region is in “slow growth.”

The institute defines “in surge” as currently experiencing sustained rapid and significant growth. “Slow growth” is defined as sustained growth not rapid enough to be considered a surge.

The sudden increase in cases may be the result of testing and reporting delays from the Thanksgiving holiday, the UVA researchers said in their Dec. 10 update. Models continue to forecast a gradual growth in case rates through the new year, although the possibility of a winter surge remains, according to the update.

As of Monday, 1,278 people across Virginia were hospitalized with confirmed or test-pending cases of COVID-19, up from the 1,251 reported Friday.

Since the start of the pandemic, more positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the 10-19 age group than in the 60-69 age group, the 70-79 age group, or people 80 and older. And more positive cases have been reported in the 0-9 age group since the start of the pandemic than in the 70-79 age group, or the 80 and older age group, according to VDH data.