Virginia adds 2,300 new COVID cases, 26 deaths

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Department of Health is reporting 215,679 total cases of COVID-19 across the commonwealth as of Saturday, November 21, going back to the beginning of the pandemic in March. That’s up 2,348 from the 213,331 reported Friday, a smaller increase than Friday’s 2,544 new cases.

As of Saturday, there are 3,938 recorded coronavirus-related deaths in the commonwealth since the pandemic’s beginning. 3,912 were reported Friday.

[VDH website to be offline November 21 for maintenance]

Governor Northam last week announced new measures designed to curtail the spread of COVID-19, and is urging people to stick to small gatherings, especially for traditional events such as Thanksgiving. He encourages a virtual Thanksgiving, using forums such as Zoom.

3,071,135 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests have been conducted, with a 6.8 percent positive rate over the last week, down from the 7.0 percent reported Friday.

1,507 people across Virginia are hospitalized as of Saturday with confirmed or test-pending cases of COVID-19, down from 1,510 reported Friday.

23,053 COVID patients have been released from hospitals in Virginia since the beginning of the pandemic. That’s according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, which gets a daily report from hospitals around the commonwealth.

These hospital numbers are different from those reported by VDH, which only gathers hospitalization status at the time each case is investigated by VDH, and is an under-representation of Virginia hospitalizations.

COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus

Any new confirmed cases from health departments throughout the state the rest of the day won’t show up until at least the following day on the state list, as the official numbers are only updated once a day, with a 5 p.m. cutoff each day for new cases to be reflected on the next day’s list.