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

VIRGINIA — A change in administrations means that after months of being hidden from public view, weekly reports sent to Virginia by the White House coronavirus response team have a new, publicly accessible home.

The report updated Jan. 27 shows that Virginia has seen a 10 percent rise in the number of coronavirus cases and a 15 percent increase in the number of deaths per 100,000 residents in the past week.

Ten Virginia metro areas were in the "red zone" this week, and 105 counties.

Cyrus Shahpar, COVID-19 data director for the Biden administration, announced the release of the report in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

“First post: We are now sharing previously hidden weekly COVID-19 state profile reports with the public,” Shahpar tweeted.

First post: We are now sharing previously hidden weekly COVID-19 state profile reports with the public. Thanks to data team and @l_e_whyte @rypan @alexismadrigal @DrTomFrieden @EricTopol @JasonSalemi @PeterJ_Walker @T_Inglesby https://t.co/f4trSyNpBv
— Cyrus Shahpar (@cyrusshahpar46) January 27, 2021

Virginia's case average has started to decline after reaching a new high in January, but the average remains above those of previous months.

On Wednesday, 5,121 new cases were reported, and the seven-day average is 4,867 daily cases. The peak average had been 6,166 cases on Jan. 18.

Current hospitalizations stand at 2,706 after peaking in the 3,000s earlier in January. The total includes 515 patients in the intensive care units and 322 on ventilators.

They represent about 21 percent of the 13,468 occupied hospital beds in Virginia. There are 16,476 total staffed hospital beds in the state. Ventilator use among all Virginia hospital patients stands at 36 percent, and intensive care unit occupancy is at 84 percent, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

The release of the weekly state reports marks a stark contrast between the response of the current administration and its predecessor.

For the most part, the Trump administration had kept the weekly reports under wraps, sharing them with state governors but not with the general public. While some governors would share the reports at a state level, not all did.

The reports often contained key county-level data as well as federal recommendations by health experts that, if enacted, could potentially curb the spread of coronavirus.

The reason for keeping them hidden, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, was to encourage states to lead their own response to the pandemic.

Dr. Deborah Birx, a leader of the White House task force under former President Donald Trump, said on a private call last summer that the reports were “critical to really ensure we’re all looking at the same data and all looking at the same mitigation efforts,” according to a separate report by the Center for Public Integrity.

However, just before Christmas, the coronavirus task force under Trump stopped its proactive approach to sending out the reports. Instead, the task force said it would only distribute reports if states requested them.

Here’s what we learned in the first Virginia report:

• The state ranks 9th among the states for new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents
• The state ranks 14th among the states for test positivity
• The state ranks 11th among the states for COVID admission to hospitals
• The state ranks 34th among the states for new deaths per 100,000 residents

The release of the weekly state reports is the latest move by the Biden administration to bring transparency back to the White House.

Within hours of Joe Biden’s inauguration, press secretary Jen Psaki held her first press briefing at the White House. During it, Psaki — who served as the chief spokeswoman at the State Department under President Barack Obama — told reporters she had a “deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also said Americans should expect a “transparent, open and honest” response to the coronavirus under Biden.

While there's still a ways to go before herd immunity can be accomplished in Virginia, the 553,463 people with at least one vaccine dose exceed the 493,674 coronavirus cases in Virginia.

Below are the latest coronavirus data updates for our coverage area from Wednesday to Thursday:

• Alexandria: 9,299 cases, 486 hospitalizations, 103 deaths; increase of 63 cases, one hospitalization, one death
• Arlington County: 11,487 cases, 723 hospitalizations, 197 deaths; increase of 73 cases, two hospitalizations and two deaths
• Fairfax County: 58,501 cases, 3,246 hospitalizations, 772 deaths; increase of 409 cases, 16 hospitalizations and 10 deaths
• Fairfax City: 420 cases, 29 hospitalizations and 10 deaths; increase of seven cases and two hospitalizations
• Falls Church: 288 cases, 18 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of three cases and two deaths
• Loudoun County: 19,821 cases, 729 hospitalizations, 173 deaths; increase of 313 cases and four hospitalizations, two deaths
• Manassas: 3,619 cases, 153 hospitalizations, 33 deaths; increase of 11 cases
• Manassas Park: 1,064 cases, 66 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of two cases
• Prince William County: 34,545 cases, 1,305 hospitalizations, 302 deaths; increase of 231 cases, four hospitalizations, and seven deaths
• Fredericksburg: 1,481 cases, 73 hospitalizations, 14 deaths; increase of 13 cases and one hospitalization
• Spotsylvania County: 6,974 cases, 238 hospitalizations, 80 deaths; increase of 95 cases
• Stafford County: 7,687 cases, 268 hospitalizations, 46 deaths; increase of 101 cases, four hospitalizations, and one death

SEE ALSO:

• Increased Vaccine Allocation Expected In Virginia: Governor
• NoVA Leaders Call For Vaccine Doses, Mass Vaccination Site
• More Contagious Coronavirus Variant Found In Northern Virginia