Coronavirus Variants Of Concern Tracked On New Virginia Dashboard

VIRGINIA — With five COVID-19 variants of concern present in Virginia, a new dashboard was launched to track the variants.

The Virginia Department of Health created the dashboard in collaboration with the state public health lab. The dashboard shows variants of concern confirmed from participating laboratories for specimens that tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says variants of concern have "evidence of an increase in transmissivity, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures."

To date, variants of concern identified in Virginia have included B.1.1.7, B.1.351, B.1.427, B.1.429 and P.1. The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK in 2020, accounts for 81.8 percent of variant cases in Virginia. This variant is associated with increased transmission and may cause more severe disease, but it has minimal impact on neutralizing by convalescent serum and post-vaccination serum.

In Virginia, there have been 965 infections involving variants of concern, 50 hospitalizations, and five deaths. There are also breakdowns of infections by region, age group, race and ethnic group and sex.

"Results on variants of concern that are reported to VDH are quite small compared to the total number of tests conducted daily," VDH said in a statement. "However, VDH uses this information to estimate that there are many more cases of COVID-19 caused by these variants circulating statewide than what are identified."

VDH says the best way to prevent new variant strains of COVID-19 from developing is to stop spread of the virus. The health department recommends wearing a mask over the mouth and nose, keeping six feet of distance from others, avoiding crowds, washing hands, and getting vaccinated.

The variants of concern dashboard will be updated weekly on Fridays.

COVID-19 data

Overall, Virginia had the lowest daily COVID-19 cases since October on Sunday. An additional 884 cases were reported, bringing the seven-day average of daily cases to 1,154. Cumulative cases to date total 654,210. There were 16 new deaths reported on Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 10,691.

The positive average of PCR tests is on a slight downward trend. The latest average is 5.5 percent as of April 21. Starting in early January, the positive average fell from a 2021 peak of 17.4 percent before stabilizing in early March. Since then, the average has been in the 5-percent and 6-percent range.

The average of daily PCR testing encounters continues to trend downward since mid-January. As of April 21, the average is 17,446 daily testing encounters. At a peak on Jan. 14, the average was 35,042.

Current hospitalizations fell from 1,043 to 999 on Sunday. That number includes 256 patients in the intensive care units and 133 on ventilators. COVID-19 patients make up approximately 7.7 percent of the 12,962 occupied hospital beds in Virginia.

Ventilator use among all hospital patients is at 28 percent, and ICU occupancy is at 78 percent, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.

As of Sunday, 3,627,978 people in Virginia have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, or 42.5 percent of the population. A total of 2,411,830 are fully vaccinated, or 28.3 percent of the population.

Here are the latest coronavirus data updates for our coverage area from Saturday to Sunday:

• Alexandria: 11,570 cases, 550 hospitalizations, 133 deaths; increase of six cases
• Arlington County: 14,982 cases, 826 hospitalizations, 251 deaths; increase of 13 cases and two hospitalizations
• Fairfax County: 75,344 cases, 3,868 hospitalizations, 1,067 deaths; increase of 100 cases and six hospitalizations
• Fairfax City: 540 cases, 47 hospitalizations, 19 deaths; increase of one death
• Falls Church: 418 cases, 20 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of one case
• Loudoun County: 27,077 cases, 1,021 hospitalizations, 274 deaths; increase of 34 cases and one hospitalization
• Manassas: 4,297 cases, 169 hospitalizations, 47 deaths; increase of four cases
• Manassas Park: 1,196 cases, 68 hospitalizations, 12 deaths; no changes
• Prince William County: 44,300 cases, 1,597 hospitalizations, 479 deaths; increase of 52 cases
• Fredericksburg: 2,043 cases, 99 hospitalizations, 22 deaths; increase of one case
• Spotsylvania County: 9,561 cases, 303 hospitalizations, 113 deaths; increase of 16 cases and one hospitalization
• Stafford County: 10,946 cases, 350 hospitalizations, 74 deaths; increase of 24 cases