Health officials are making one final plea for people to follow recommendations about Thanksgiving gatherings with people outside your household.
Dr. Noelle Bissell with the New River Health District said we tend to let our guard down when we gather with friends and family. And those small gatherings are fueling the spread of COVID-19 right now. "If you’re celebrating with people who don’t live in your household, even if it’s extended family, I need you to wear a mask inside," Bissell advised. Moving your gathering outdoors will also help reduce the risk, she said.
Click here for more guidance from the Centers for Disease Control
Bissell noted that community spread of COVID-19 is present in all of the New River Valley, as well as most other areas of the Commonwealth. That can make it difficult to determine where someone contracted an infection. Bissell also said contact tracers are not able to follow up with each positive test so it's important that people with the illness isolate for at 10 days and close contacts of positive cases quarantine for 14 days.
In an virtual news conference Wednesday, Bissell said exit testing of students at Virginia Tech and Radford University revealed few additional cases of COVID-19. Students are more likely to be going home into areas of heavy community spread rather than bringing the virus home with them, Bissell said.
Virginia Surpasses 4,000 Deaths
More than 4,000 Virginians have now died due to complications from the novel coronavirus.
Wednesday's update from the Virginia Department of Health also shows the state added 2,718 new COVID-19 cases. Virginia has conducted more than 3.2 million tests and the statewide positivity rate continues to climb. It’s currently at 7.5%.
Hospitalizations Rising in Near Southwest Region
A coalition of health systems that serve southwest Virginia reports 234 current hospitalizations from the virus. That group includes Carilion, Centra, SOVAH, LewisGale and the VA facility in Salem.
The number of hospitalizations has been steadily climbing since the beginning of the month. Last week, there were 208 people hospitalized in the health department's Near Southwest Region, which includes Roanoke, Lynchburg, Danville, Martinsville and parts of the New River Valley.
The number of patients in need of ICU care (49) and ventilators (24) has also risen since the group’s previous update last week.
