COVID-19 case rates continued to improve in the Three Rivers Health District over the past week, with only two to three cases reported per day for all 10 jurisdictions combined.
“Our environment is much safer at this time for everyone,” said Dr. Richard Williams, medical director for the district, in his weekly pandemic update.
About 58 percent of adults over 18 in the district have had at least one dose of the vaccine, he said, while over 80 percent of residents 65 and older have had at least one dose.
Locally, 47.2 percent of Gloucester residents, or 17,642 people, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 40.6 percent, or 15,169 people, were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday. In Mathews, 4,608 people, of 52.2 percent of residents, have received at least one dose, and 46.6 percent, or 4,120 people, were fully vaccinated. In Middlesex, those numbers were 5,706 people, or 53.9 percent, with at least one dose, and 5,059 people, or 47.8 percent, fully vaccinated.
In Virginia as a whole, the new case rate as of Monday was down to fewer than 200 per day over a seven-day average, said Williams, and as of Wednesday, 56 percent of the total population of the state had received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 68.2 percent of those over age 18 had received at least one dose.
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths
Case rates remained low this week, with Gloucester recording just seven new cases between last Wednesday and this Wednesday, for a total of 2,260 cases since the pandemic began. The number of cases in Mathews and Middlesex remained the same, at 599 and 573 cases, respectively.
In Gloucester, hospitalizations were up by three during the past week, for a total of 64, while Mathews and Middlesex remained at 22 and 25, respectively.
There were no deaths from COVID-19 in any of the three counties, leaving those numbers at Gloucester, 49; Mathews, 12; and Middlesex, 20.
Across the Three Rivers Health District, the number of cases increased by just 10, for a total of 10,161 cases since March 2020. Five people were hospitalized with the virus during the past week, for a total of 422, and there were three district deaths from COVID, for a total of 192.
Statewide, there have been 677,210 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with 1,427 of them recorded during the past week. Altogether, 30,050 people have been hospitalized with the virus in Virginia, with 235 of those hospitalizations occurring over the past week. Finally, 11,260 people have died in Virginia from COVID, 54 during the past week.