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Virginia COVID-19 Cases Pass 6,000; Northam Gets High Marks for Handling of Crisis

The number of COVID-19 cases in Virginia passed the 6,000 mark Tuesday, according to data collected by the Virginia Department of Health.

The health department's websitereported 6,171 positive cases in its Tuesday morning update.  The number of hospitalizations is closing in on 1,000 and stands at 978.  About 30% of those hospitalizations are in the Fairfax and Prince William health districts in Northern Virginia. 154 Virginians have died from the illness. 

Roanoke and Richmond Testing

In the Roanoke Valley, health officials say they’re cautiously optimistic that COVD-19 cases may be leveling off.

But Doctor Molly O’Dell with the Roanoke City-Alleghany Health District says we won’t really know until there’s more testing.  And that’s also the key to knowing when social distancing rules can be relaxed. "If we can switch, with more testing, to do a case-based approach, and that means if we could do testing on every case contact, then we can better know what the circle of cases are in our community."

O’Dell says right now only people who have symptoms of the illness are being tested.  Research has shown people can spread the virus before they start showing symptoms.  And some infected patients never exhibit any symptoms at all.

O’Dell says one health care provider in the Roanoke region is now conducting rapid testing and efforts are underway to expand the capacity.  The Roanoke City-Alleghany Health District covers seven municpalities in the Roanoke Valley and Alleghany Highlands.  It's averaging about two new positive cases of COVID-19 every day, O'Dell says.

African Americans represent more than 60% of the positive cases of COVID-19 in the city of Richmond and it could be even higher.  Doctor Danny Avula with the Richmond and Henrico Health District says racial data is unavailable for about 10% of the confirmed cases.

Next week, health officials plan to deploy testing teams to low-income and under-served communities in response to the high percentage of cases among African Americans.

African Americans make up about 48% of Richmond's total population, according to the most recent demographic estimate from UVA's Weldon Cooper Center.

Dept. of Corrections Reports Inmate Death

A Virginia prison inmate has died from COVID-19, the first recorded death among that population in Virginia. The Department of Corrections said the woman had been hospitalized since April 4th and died Tuesday morning.  She was incarcerated at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women in Goochland.

The corrections department says 44 inmates and 32 staff members statewide have active COVID-19 infections.

Northam's Handling of Crisis Gets High Marks

Also Tuesday, a poll released by Virginia Commonwealth University found Governor Ralph Northam is getting high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.  The poll was conducted by the school's Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.  It found 76% of Virginians say somewhat approve or strongly approve of Northam's response to the crisis.  The poll also found Virginians were more split on President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis.  About 50% of the poll's respondents said they somewhat or strongly approved.

David Seidel is Radio IQ's News Director.
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