31 VA Counties In Red Zone: White House Coronavirus Task Force

VIRGINIA — Thirty-one of Virginia's counties are in the red zone when it comes to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said in a recent report. Red zones have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents and a diagnostic test positivity result of above 10 percent.

The reports, while not made public by the task force, have been obtained by The Center for Public Integrity. The most recent report made available is dated Nov. 29.

Overall, Virginia is classified in the red zone for COVID-19 cases and is showing signs of a continued viral surge, the report said. The red zone for cases indicates 101 or more new cases per 100,000 population, with the 44th highest rate in the country.

Virginia is in the yellow zone for test positivity, indicating a rate between 5.0 percent and 7.9 percent, with the 42nd highest rate in the country.

These counties and cities were in the red zone and had the highest number of new cases over the last three weeks of November: Culpeper, Washington, Franklin, Henry, Tazewell, Wise, Augusta, Pulaski, Lee, Campbell, Pittsylvania, Winchester City, Wythe, Scott, Carroll, Prince George, Manassas City, Martinsville City, Russell, Bristol City, Amherst, Powhatan, Buchanan, Dinwiddie, Dickenson, Bland, Galax City, Manassas Park City, Amelia, Bath, and Emporia City.

Virginia has seen an increase in new cases and a decrease in test positivity, but a continued rise in hospitalizations.

Seventy percent of all counties in Virginia have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 23 percent having high levels of community transmission (red zone).

As a result of the accelerating outbreak, the report offers several recommendations to help slow the pandemic's expected post- Thanksgiving surge:

• If you are over 65 or have significant health conditions, you should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health; you should have groceries and medications delivered. If you are under 40, you need to assume you became infected during the Thanksgiving period if you gathered beyond your immediate household. You must isolate away from anyone at increased risk for severe disease and get tested immediately.
• It is essential to prepare for and limit a post-Thanksgiving resurgence. Improved public observance of social distancing measures is urgently needed to limit overrunning hospital capacity and preventable deaths.
• Limiting travel throughout the next several weeks is an additional key mitigation measure. The governor’s continued personal guidance and forward leaning positions on these measures are critical and are commended.
• Short-term mitigation interventions, including restricting indoor dining and limiting and/or closing areas of congregation without masking, will be needed.
• Additional measures should be taken, including communications to reinforce messaging around social gatherings throughout the ongoing holiday season. Maximizing control of transmission now will also allow for greater and earlier resumption of business activity in addition to limiting cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
• Efforts to identify and reduce asymptomatic transmission should run concurrently with testing of symptomatic persons and contact tracing of cases.
• Expand strategic use of point-of-care antigen tests for all individuals that gather across households.
• Proactive testing must be part of the mitigation efforts inclusive of universal masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and the active promotion of activities in outdoor settings.
• New hospital admissions in Virginia continue to rise. Conduct aggressive impact testing of adults under 40 to rapidly identify those who became infected over Thanksgiving before they spread the virus to more vulnerable individuals, driving another round of increased hospitalizations and fatalities.
• Contact all hospitals reporting less than one week’s supply to confirm data; contact the regional FEMA office for support if supplies are an issue.
• Ensure all universities returning in the winter move to mandatory weekly testing of all on and off campus students. Planning for this must begin now.
• There continue to be high levels of positive staff at long-term care facilities, indicative of continued and unmitigated community spread in these geographic areas.

The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report for Virginia comes as cases continue to climb throughout the state.

Virginia on Sunday confirmed a total of 255,053 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 3,880 new cases. The state had a positivity rate of 10.6 percent on Sunday.

A total of 4,200 Virginians have died from the disease, an increase of 29 fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to the state's coronavirus dashboard.

Currently there are 1,969 patients hospitalized for treatment of the respiratory disease, an increase of 117 cases statewide from 1,852 COVID-19 patients hospitalized on Saturday. Hospitalizations in Virginia have remained steady over the past three days. Of these, 183 patients are on ventilators, and 4o7 are in the intensive care units.

Read more:

• More Coronavirus Vaccines Coming For VA's Top-Priority Groups
• Are You Confident In A COVID-19 Vaccine? Take VA Patch's Survey

Based on new information about the federal government's Operation Warp Speed, Virginia health officials are preparing to receive an estimated 480,000 doses of vaccine from two manufacturers — Pfizer and Moderna — by the end of the month.

The larger number of doses will ensure that nearly all of those in Virginia's two top-priority groups — health care personnel and long-term care facility residents — will be taken care of in the first round of vaccinations. The Virginia Department of Health estimates there are up to 500,000 individuals in these two groups.

"Vaccine will be provided to Virginians in a way that is fair, ethical, and transparent," Virginia State Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver said, in a release. "We will focus initially on the groups that have been most at risk for severe illness from COVID-19 infections and those whose work puts them at greatest risk of contracting COVID-19 infections. Over time, as more vaccine supply becomes available, more Virginians will be able to get vaccinated, and we can look forward to a time when this pandemic will end."

Virginia is expected to received its first shipment of vaccines from Pfizer in mid-December. These doses will require ultra-cold storage of negative 70 degrees Celsius, with the 72,150 initial doses being sent to geographically diverse health care systems that have ultra-cold storage capacity.

Spikes in new cases and tests come a little more than a week after Thanksgiving. Officials have urged people who traveled or gathered in large groups for the holiday to get tested for the virus.

"If your family traveled, you have to assume that you are exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week," Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said on the CBS show "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"You need to avoid anyone in your family with co-morbidities" or those over age 65, Birx said to those who may have been exposed, as older adults and people with underlying medical conditions are at greatest risk of complications from the virus.

The coronavirus primarily spreads from person-to-person contact, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding getting the virus by putting 6 feet of distance between one another to decrease the likelihood of its transmission as well as frequent hand-washing, staying home when sick and wearing a face covering when around other people.

With reporting by Kara Seymour