Governor Ralph Northam said models suggest COVID-19 cases in Virginia will peak in late April to late May.
In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Northam continued to warn that Virginia's fight against the illness will last months, not weeks.
"I want Virginians to be realistic in their expectations," Northam said. "My strategy has been to prepare for the worst and hope for the best." Dr. Norm Oliver, the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health, said officials are working on a model with Virginia-specific data. That should be available in a few days, Oliver said.
Northam noted that the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has evaluated dozens of sites for potential temporary hospitals. Three have been sites have been indentified in Fairfax, Hampton and the Richmond area. Officials said those areas are more likely to exceed existing hospital capacity so they were focused on first. Sites around Charlottesville and Roanoke will be evaluated next week.
Northam also asked religious communities to continue employing social distancing guidelines during April holidays like Easter and Passover. Northam noted that a few have not followed the guidelines, but he thanked the overwhelming majority that have.
More than 15,000 tests for the novel coronavirus have now been conducted in Virginia. That number, reported by the Virginia Department of Health, increased by almost 2,000 since Tuesday morning.
The number of deaths also increased to 34 Wednesday morning. And the number of positive COVID-19 cases rose to 1,484.
Testing has steadily increased over the last week or so, but some medical professionals have worried about the waiting time for results. During a news conference Tuesday, doctors at Centra Health in Lynchburg said it's still taking up to ten days for many results to come back. By then, a 14-day isolation period is almost up according to Dr. Chris Thompson, Centra's chief medical officer. Labs have prioritized tests for high priority patients, like medical professionals and other high-risk patients Centra's CEO said. Of the approximately 500 tests conducted by Centra, about half were still being processed Dr. Andy Mueller said.
