The Virginia Department of Healthrecorded a new record single-day increase for COVID-19 cases with 568. There were also 8 additional deaths. There are now 5,077 total cases in the Commonwealth. The agency also said there were 837 total hospitalizations, and 37,999 people had been tested. Faifax County now has 946 cases.
During Friday's press conference with Gov. Ralph Northam, Secretary for Health and Human Resources Daniel Carey says his department's priority is to increase the capacity and rapidity of testing.
Virginia ranks 24th out the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the total number of tests performed, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Because it is one of the more populous states, Virginia has ranked toward the bottom in testing rates per person.
Carey says the state receives between 2,500 and 4,000 test results each day from labs that can take from 24 hours to a week to process.
