Virginia COVID-19 hospitalizations down; 21 new deaths reported

RICHMOND, Va.  – The Virginia Department of Health is reporting 115,458 total cases of COVID-19 in the commonwealth as of Wednesday morning, going back to the beginning of the pandemic. That’s up from 114,635 reported Tuesday, an 823-case increase, which is a smaller increase than the 1,005 new cases reported from Monday to Tuesday.

5.021 of the overall cases are considered “probable.”

There are 2,515 recorded coronavirus-related deaths in the commonwealth, up from 2,494 reported Tuesday.

1,502,521 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests have been conducted, with a 6.4 percent positive rate over the last week, the same as the number reported Monday and Tuesday.

1,170 people across Virginia are hospitalized as of Wednesday with confirmed or test-pending cases of COVID-19. That’s down from 1,174 reported Tuesday. 14,682 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 underrepresentation 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.