As local cases and hospitalizations drop, Halifax County has moved out of the high community level for COVID-19.
There are only 12 localities in the high level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That represents only 2.7% of the state’s population.
Halifax is now in the medium tier category, a level that still carries the recommendation for high-risk individuals to wear a mask in public. Sixty-two other localities also are in the medium zone.
With the exception of Pittsylvania County — in the low level — all areas bordering Halifax are in the medium stage for COVID-19 spread, according to the CDC.
Across the state, cases have dropped by one-third in just two weeks, the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute reported Friday. That puts the case levels on par with early December.
Locally, about five new COVID-19 cases are being recorded a day, the health department reports. However, the official count is notoriously low with at-home testing, UVa has reported. But it is a drop from the 15 officially reported cases per day in early January.
On Monday, Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital was treating only two patients for COVID-19, a dramatic drop from the 16 daily patients in early January.
Statewide trends mirror the local level, dropping nearly 22% in two weeks. ICU occupancy and ventilator supported patient numbers are also down slightly, UVa reported.
Nationally, the CDC shows that COVID-19-associated hospitalizations remain elevated among adults 65 years and older. That’s the age group with the highest rate of COVID-19 associated hospitalizations.
Since the week ending Dec. 17, hospitalization rates among this age group have increased.
When it comes to the variant, the latest one — known as XBB.1.5 — makes up about 73% of new cases in Virginia, according to CDC models.
“XBB.1.5 does not cause more severe illness than other variants,” researchers at UVa wrote in Friday’s brief report. “ But it is better able to cause reinfections among those with natural immunity.”
However, a new study by the CDC shows the new booster is effective against the new variant.
But only 20% of the national population has received the updated booster, the CDC reported.
In Virginia, daily vaccinates have dropped to the lowest level in a year with only about 3,000 shots given per day. A year ago, there were nearly 23,000 vaccine doses administered per day.
Halifax County added two new deaths at the hands of COVID-19 to the log books in January, bringing the total number to 184 lives lost over the course of the pandemic.
Even though the deaths appeared in a database this month, the fatalities could have happened last year. State and federal health officials wait for the death certificate to confirm COVID-19 was the cause.
Last week, the CDC detailed the progress.
“CDC’s goal is to provide actionable information to public health professionals and the American public,” officials wrote in a Friday report. “However, CDC recognizes that misunderstandings about COVID-19 death data have led to claims that COVID-19 deaths in the United States are being overcounted.”
It starts with hospitalizations. The CDC tracker at the national level includes all hospital patients who test positive for COVID-19, no matter why they may be in the facility.
Sometimes that leads to what’s known as “incidental” COVID-19, meaning they were admitted to the hospital for another reason, but received a positive COVID-19 test.
“COVID-19 death data are tracked differently — they include only the deaths in which COVID-19 played a meaningful role,” officials wrote. “CDC gets these data from health departments in weekly reports, which provide an early look at death trends, and through death certificates, which are more reliable, but which also take time to collect and report.”
According to the CDC, there are two types of causes listed on death certificates: underlying (primary) when COVID-19 was the main reason the person died and contributing (secondary), when another condition is listed as the underlying cause but COVID-19 contributed to the death.
As an example, if a person had congestive heart failure and COVID-19 put too much stress on an already weakened heart, that would be a contributing factor.
“People who happen to have COVID-19 at the time of their death but it is unrelated to their death — for example, someone who dies in a car accident — should not have COVID-19 listed on their death certificates,” CDC officials said.
However, officials note that “errors and misclassifications can occasionally happen.”
That’s why health workers at the state and federal level review death certificates and sometimes correct data.
“Over 1 million deaths in the United States due to COVID-19 have been reported since the start of the pandemic, and these deaths should not be downplayed,” officials wrote in the report. “Each death is a tragic loss that should be remembered as a person rather than a statistic.”
