The health director for the Roanoke City-Alleghany Health District says quarantine means stay home, not just stay home from school. In a weekly call with reporters, Dr. Cynthia Morrow said that's a joint message from health officials and school superintendents in the Roanoke area.
"If your child is on isolation because they have COVID, they must stay in their rooms, separated to the extent possible, and I understand that’s challenging with children, from household contacts," Morrow explained. "If they are on quarantine, they need to stay home and not go to football games, any social events, birthday parties."
Morrow said household and social contacts are the biggest driver of new COVID-19 cases in the area right now. Earlier in the summer, travel was driving case numbers higher.
Morrow reported 808 new COVID-19 cases over the past week, up from 715 the week before. Morrow cautioned that this week's data could be lower than reality because of reduced testing and reporting over the holiday weekend. "We know looking at last year, that holidays tended to be followed two or three weeks later by an increase in cases," Morrow said.
Sixty-four district residents were hospitalized for complications related to COVID-19 as of Monday, up from 48 the week before. One additional death was reported over the past week, bringing the district's total to 521.
On a statewide level, Virginia reported 2,007 new cases Tuesday, the fifth straight day of decreasing case numbers.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations At Ballad Health Continue To Climb
The number of people hospitalized for complications related to COVID-19 continues to climb at Ballad Health's facilities in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee.
Ballad reported 403 hospitalized COVID-19 patients Tuesday. Of those, 92 are in intensive care and 66 are on ventilators. All three data points are higher than what Ballad experienced during last winter's surge.
Here’s where @BalladHealth is at right now: 403 Inpatients w/Covid. ICUs are full. Urgent Care is pretty overwhelmed. ER’s are backed up. 307 pts in Safer At Home. We will provide more information today on steps community can take to help.
— Alan Levine (@alevine014) September 7, 2021
NRHD Officials Not Expecting Jump in Cases from Virginia Tech Football Games
Health officials in the New River Valley aren’t expecting a jump in COVID cases from Friday’s Virginia Tech football game.
Doctor Noelle Bissell says the outdoor setting of the sold out game was a big part of that.
“Virginia Tech has very high vaccination rates with their students," she explains. "We were there offering vaccines and people we engaged with for the most part were already vaccinated, so that’s a really good sign. Virginia Tech has very high staff vaccination rates as well.”
With another football game on the schedule Saturday at Lane Stadium, Bissell says it’s important for fans to do a risk assessment.
If you’re at higher risk from the virus, she says consider watching the game at home.
